Orioles pitching is a problem, and it rears its head in blowout loss to Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Just a few days ago, Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias stated what has been clear for his entire tenure, given his free agency and draft preferences.

“This is a team that was built on its offense,” Elias said. To improve Baltimore’s fortunes, he said, the Orioles needed to get “the offense clicking up and down the lineup.”

The issue, beyond the fact that the offense hasn’t really clicked very often, is that this lineup finds themselves in deep holes far too frequently. The hole was large and immediate in Monday’s series-opening 16-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays (31-15), and it once more casts a pall over the future prospects of this team in 2026 and beyond.

Given the current roster construction, Elias put ample faith behind a trio of starting pitchers to be the bedrock of the pitching staff. Kyle Bradish has turned a corner and appears to be back at his best. Shane Baz, who received a thank-you video from the Rays upon his return to Tampa Bay, has produced mixed results since Baltimore acquired him via trade.

And then there’s left-hander Trevor Rogers, whose disaster of an outing against the American League’s best team continued a troubling season of regression. He was visibly emotional in the clubhouse after the loss, taking time between answers to compose himself.

“Excuse my French, but they beat my ass tonight and I let down everyone in this room,” Rogers said, “and I’m just not doing my job right now. And this loss is on me.”

Those three pitchers were key parts of this lineup-first roster, with Baltimore hoping they could grow together into a three-headed monster. They haven’t performed at a level that allows the Orioles (21-27) to be a serious contender for the postseason, even in an American League full of underachievers.

After the game, manager Craig Albernaz said that despite the blowout nature of this loss, “every loss is the same.”

“That’s why we play every day,” he said. “It’s not like football where you play once a week, or basketball. We have to turn the page fast, and our guys have shown the ability to do that. It’s just one game, and we still have the ability to win the series.”

Of course, from a morale sense, every loss may not be the same — particularly for a fan base struggling to keep watching.

This is not to pin the blame solely on those three pitchers. Far from it. There are so many factors at play — recovery from elbow surgery for Bradish, a learning curve for Baz, natural regression for Rogers. There’s a shaky defense behind them. There’s a lineup that is underperforming, as well.

All told, this is a mess that falls more directly on the whole — and, by extension, Elias. He isn’t the one throwing the pitches or swinging the bat, but his hitter-oriented roster has a pitching problem.

Rogers was at the center of it Monday, with seven earned runs against him in 3 2/3 innings. His ERA has risen to 6.87.

“Can’t explain it,” said Albernaz of Rogers, who held a 1.81 ERA in 18 starts last year. “It’s one of those things where he came out of the gates really strong and hot, and he had a bad outing, and then he got sick. And here we are, it feels like he’s searching to regain his own form from earlier in the year. But for Trevor, he needs to keep on pushing and keep on working to get back to where he was. It might seem like a stretch, but I don’t think he’s far off.”

When informed that his manager thinks he’s close to a turnaround, and asked whether he agrees, Rogers paused for 10 seconds before answering.

“Trying to be as professional as I can,” Rogers said, taking a deep breath. “Deep down, I think so. The past four or five starts, it’s just been one inning where I’ve just gone off the rails with two outs — just nothing has gone my way. I feel like I’m really close. I still have the belief in myself. I know how good I can be. I’m just doing the complete opposite right now.”

Two-out situations have been an issue all season for Rogers. He entered this start with a .404 average against him with two outs and the Rays exposed that again with a second-inning rally. After recording the second out of the frame with runners on second and third, Rogers surrendered three singles, a double and a walk. Five runs scored to add onto the unearned run in the first inning.

Rogers produced a clean third inning but ran into a two-out problem in the fourth, too. Junior Caminero, one of the league’s most dangerous hitters, walked. Then Ryan Vilade tripled, which prompted Albernaz to turn to right-hander Cameron Foster out of the bullpen.

Foster wound up allowing four runs in 1 1/3 innings, and left-hander Dietrich Enns conceded four more in his inning of work. For the third time this season, infielder Weston Wilson appeared in a game to pitch.

“You hate when you have to do it,” Wilson said. “It’s usually a bad situation, so that part stinks, but it helps them out. Like, it’s something that you know you gotta do it, and hopefully save a guy or two from having to pitch. Then we can win a ballgame tomorrow.”

The Orioles had a fine day at the plate, but the pitching calamity left them an insurmountable deficit. Pete Alonso, playing near his hometown of Tampa, produced a three-hit day. Adley Rutschman homered and singled. Wilson became the third Orioles player since at least 1973 to homer in a game they pitched, joining Kris Benson (2006) and Zack Britton (2011).

Baltimore posted four runs in five innings against left-hander Shane McClanahan. The Orioles would take that most times against him.

But they were so far behind so quickly that the offense’s 12-hit night was nothing more than a silver lining — and those don’t mean much in baseball.

“The frustrating part about today was offense answered,” Albernaz said. “We get within four and we couldn’t have the shutdown inning, you know? That’s the biggest thing.”

Before the game, Brandon Hyde was at Tropicana Field as a member of the Rays. He’s a senior adviser in their baseball operations department. A year and one day ago, the Orioles fired Hyde as manager. Their record at this point last year was worse, but in that one year, there has been little improvement, if any.

But as Albernaz said, there’s another game on the horizon.

“Just like any game, we’ve got to come out and try to win the next game, turn the page and put our work in,” he said.

How many pages there are left to turn, even at this early juncture, remains to be seen.