The Orioles’ streak of 91 regular-season sequence with out being swept outlined their 2023 marketing campaign earlier than the membership’s unprecedented yr resulted in “ironic” vogue, as middle fielder Cedric Mullins put it, with a sweep within the American League Division Series.
That streak is technically nonetheless intact, however the subsequent time Baltimore is within the playoffs, a brand new one would be the focus.
With their three-and-out within the ALDS in opposition to the Rangers, the Orioles have misplaced eight consecutive postseason video games — the worst stretch in franchise historical past and the longest lively streak within the sport. Only 9 groups in MLB historical past have suffered an extended such streak.
“You never want to be on a streak,” Orioles fan Nathan Skidmore stated earlier than Game 3 of the ALDS. “You by no means need individuals to have the ability to pull that up on a graphic and be like, ‘Eight in a row.’
“Anytime you’re on a streak like that, I feel you begin to fear like, ‘Are we ever going to win again?’
Entering the playoffs, the Minnesota Twins owned one in all Major League Baseball’s most ignominious data. From 2004 to 2020, they misplaced 18 straight postseason video games, however with their win over the Toronto Blue Jays within the wild-card spherical (which Minnesota swept), the Twins lastly exorcised their playoff demons.
The lively leaders then grew to become the Tampa Bay Rays, who had been swept by the Rangers within the wild-card spherical, and Blue Jays at seven consecutive playoff losses. That is, till the Orioles, the AL’s prime seed by tallying 101 wins within the common season, did not file any within the 2023 playoffs.
“I’m glad they got the experience,” supervisor Brandon Hyde stated after Tuesday’s loss at Globe Life Field. “I hate the outcome because these guys deserve all the credit in the world for the season they just had. I hope people can recognize that.”
Baltimore followers want no reminder, however the streak dates to the gut-wrenching 2014 AL Championship Series. Those Orioles gained 96 video games and an AL East title, sweeping the Detroit Tigers within the ALDS to enter the ALCS versus the Kansas City Royals as World Series favorites. Then, the Royals swept the Orioles by a distinction of solely six runs — a pair of two-run losses at Camden Yards and two one-run defeats in Kansas City.
Two years later, lest followers overlook, Baltimore misplaced to the Blue Jays within the wild-card recreation, as the latest playoff season earlier than 2023 ended with Ubaldo Jiménez giving up a walk-off house run to Edwin Encarnación after Buck Showalter selected not to herald All-Star nearer Zack Britton in additional innings.
Those who had been part of the profitable 2014 and 2016 seasons and the following postseason collapses had just about nothing to do with the 2023 playoff failure. The entrance workplace has been overhauled. A brand new supervisor is on the dugout’s prime step. And just about no gamers on both of these groups performed for Baltimore in 2023 after the franchise’s painful rebuild bore fruit this yr.
The fixed all through the eight playoff losses has been Baltimore followers — those that skilled the Royals small-ball the Orioles to elimination after which two years later screamed at their televisions as Britton sat within the bullpen. They watched every one with excessive hopes, solely to be let down time after time — a now-playoff custom that continued into 2023. This yr, they cheered from Camden Yards’ stands through the one-run loss Saturday and the walk-fest Sunday, solely to see among the finest groups within the Orioles’ 70-season historical past get swept out of the postseason on the highway in Game 3.
“I’m hopeful that the team will learn something,” stated Dan Bollinger, a lifelong Orioles fan who attended Game 2 in Baltimore and Game 3 in Arlington, Texas. “Going from over 100 losses to this year’s record is great. It’s been tough being an Orioles fan for the last few years, but I’m still hopeful.”
What makes the ALDS sweep tougher to swallow is the missed alternative it represents. A 101-win workforce ought to, in concept, be a World Series contender, however the Rangers, who gained 11 fewer video games than Baltimore, had been extra apt for the pains of October baseball. A bevy of sensible selections by the Orioles’ entrance workplace over the previous 5 years is what allowed them to be the AL’s prime workforce, however its reluctance to make vital investments much like these made by their opponents proved pricey.
Whether government vice chairman and normal supervisor Mike Elias, who has but at hand out a multiyear contract to a free agent since he was employed to shepherd the rebuild in November 2018, or, extra importantly, Chairman and CEO John Angelos are prepared to spend to bolster this roster and hold the Orioles’ younger core intact stays a query. Large-market groups, in concept, can have a wider championship window given their monetary benefits, however the membership’s reluctance so far to spend anyplace close to these groups — the Orioles ranked twenty ninth out of 30 groups in payroll getting into the season, in keeping with Cot’s Baseball Contracts — may make the squandering of 2023′s alternative sting much more.
“What I worry about more than bringing in big free agents is, ‘Are they going to extend our guys?’ I like the guys on this team. I like Adley Rutschman. I like Gunnar Henderson,” stated Skidmore, a 25-year-old Northern Virginia native who now lives in Fort Worth, Texas. “When it involves the proprietor spending cash, I nearly don’t need them to spend on free brokers so we are able to prolong our guys.
“But John Angelos doesn’t fill me with confidence as someone that’s going to do what it takes to make sure the team is on top.”
With playoff enlargement through the years, streaks such because the Orioles’ have gotten extra frequent. Six of the 9 groups in MLB historical past with longer streaks had them finish after the wild-card period started in 1994. Currently, all 5 golf equipment within the AL East — thought of the game’s most daunting division — have playoff dropping streaks of a minimum of three video games. The Orioles, Rays, Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have mixed to lose 29 consecutive postseason video games, seven of which occurred this postseason as all three AL East golf equipment to qualify had been swept.
Yet, amid the disappointment within the Orioles’ clubhouse Tuesday night time was optimism for the longer term. Baltimore believes that is only the start, and it’s not onerous to ascertain why. Henderson, Rutschman, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad are all 25 or youthful. Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez blossomed into respectable top-of-the-rotation starters within the second half. And the group boasts the game’s top-ranked farm system, in keeping with Baseball America, with prospects Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo and Chayce McDermott on the cusp of the massive leagues.
“I think a lot of us are disappointed, are sad,” pitcher Tyler Wells stated. “But I think, too, this is something that we’re gonna hold onto and carry that chip on our shoulder.”
Still, although, the subsequent time the Orioles are within the postseason, the streak will comply with the membership — and the fan base — like a darkish cloud. Austin Hays, one of many gamers who survived the 100-loss seasons of the rebuild, acknowledged after Tuesday’s loss what his purpose is in 2024 and past: to ship a playoff win — and rather more — to Baltimore followers.
“The most rewarding thing was just seeing our fans come back into that stadium and get to see that playoff atmosphere at home,” Hays stated. “That’s what I would like. That’s what I need to play for. I need to be in that setting.
“I want to play all 162 knowing we’re gonna get back to that next year and get back to that moving forward cause that was a hell of an experience.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Nathan Ruiz contributed to this text.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com