They don’t have the best starting pitching. In fact, it might be the worst of any contender. They don’t have the best hitting. In fact, top to bottom, their lineup is one of the weakest of any contender. They don’t have a winning culture. In fact, they haven’t made the playoffs in more than a decade and a half. Thing is, no one told the Baltimore Orioles.
As of writing, they sit a half game up in AL East after their second consecutive walkoff win over the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s uncanny. The Orioles just keep winning and winning and winning, in ridiculous, dramatic, unbelievable ways. We baseball fans believe in destiny and baseball gods and things happening that realistically shouldn’t, and I’m not sure how much longer we can deny that this storybook Baltimore season was preordained.
The Orioles have a negative 20 run differential, two of their most productive players are Nate McLouth and Lew Ford. McLouth was a Pirates (re)castoff earlier this season after hitting .140, and hasn’t hit as high as the .279 mark he’s put up thus far in Baltimore since 2008, the only year he was any good. Before his July 29th call up (via the independent Long Island Ducks) Ford last played a major league game in 2007 (!!!!!!).
The math says they should be four games under .500 instead of the 19 games over they currently are.
Is their any doubt this team is going to win it all?
I could write 5,000 words about how this team should be terrible, but they just keep winning. And winning. And winning. As a Yankee fan I’m horrified, and as a baseball fan I’m loving every second of it.
-Max Frankel
Stat of the Day: The Orioles have no one in their starting lineup hitting .300 and no one in their rotation with more than 12 wins.
