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 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, 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.
Those three 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 to be a serious contender for the postseason, even in an American League full of underachievers.
This is not to pin the blame solely on those three. 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.
Two-out situations have been an issue all season for him. 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 inning 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 manager Craig 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.
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. Weston Wilson powered a homer of his own.
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.
Before the game, Brandon Hyde was at Tropicana Field as a member of the Rays. He’s a senior advisor 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.
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