The O’s squandered dozens of chances to score runs in bunches and then lost the game late in one of their most pathetic performances of the season.
You guys, what even is this team?
The Orioles suffered one of their most amateurish losses in a season already full of them, hitting a new rock bottom in a 5-2 loss in Minnesota that completed the Twins’ three-game sweep. The O’s, who entered the game as the worst-hitting team in MLB with runners in scoring position, devolved into self-parody with a wretched 2-for-13 in such situations today, turning what should have been an early rout into an eighth-inning tie that the bullpen promptly coughed up.
Yeah. It’s bleak, folks.
The Orioles, believe it or not, actually capitalized on their very first RISP at-bat in this game. In the top of the second against Twins starter Bailey Ober, they put two aboard on a Ramón Laureano walk and a Coby Mayo single to center, his first hit of the year. Emmanuel Rivera then jumped on a first-pitch changeup and laced it just fair down the third-base line. Laureano scored while Mayo stopped at third. “Oh, yes! A hit with runners in scoring position!” exclaimed a clearly surprised MASN analyst Jim Palmer.
Don’t get used to it, Jim. For the rest of the game, the Orioles reached new levels of sheer incompetence in RISP situations. It was a master class of how to squander every possible scoring opportunity in the dumbest ways imaginable. Even for the O’s — who were batting .193/.268/.305 with RISP entering the day — this was a new low.
Join me, won’t you, on this journey through unfettered ineptitude?
Let’s start with that second-inning rally, where the O’s still had two runners in scoring position with one out after the Rivera RBI double. A fly ball would get a run home. Or a well-placed grounder. You don’t even need to get a hit! But you do need to make contact, which the Orioles did not, as an overmatched Maverick Handley struck out on three pitches and a frustrated Gunnar Henderson also fanned, swinging at a pitch nearly in the dirt for strike three. Orioles RISP tally: 1-for-3.
The next inning, the Orioles got their first two runners on base on a Jackson Holliday walk and an error by Twins second baseman Brooks Lee on a Ryan O’Hearn grounder. More RISP fun! Ryan Mountcastle, to his credit, lifted a deep fly ball to center, plenty deep enough to score Holliday from third. OK, it’s not a hit, but we’ll take a sac fly. The Orioles took a 2-1 lead.
Then things got stupid again. Laureano ripped a shot to deep left field. Harrison Bader tried to make a lunging catch at the wall but the ball got past him and caromed along the warning track. Bader, momentarily stunned from his collision with the wall, finally raced over to get it. Yet somehow, O’Hearn failed to score from first base, instead stopping at third. What? How do you not score from first on a ball that rolls along the warning track while the outfielder is half-unconscious?
If you expected that missed opportunity to haunt the Orioles, you win a cookie. Heston Kjerstad fouled off a couple of hittable pitches and then struck out, and so did Mayo. Sigh. Orioles RISP tally: 1-for-5.
Oh, but there’s more. Much more. In the fourth inning, the eight and nine hitters, Rivera and Handley, each singled, which for the latter was his first major league hit. Congrats, Maverick! The O’s had two on with nobody out for the top of the lineup. You’d have to be an absolutely abysmal offense to not score in this situation. Well: have I got news for you!
Henderson had another atrocious at-bat, striking out swinging on a pitch that was shoulder-high. The Orioles’ vortex of suck has swept Gunnar up with it, I suppose. Holliday then grounded into a double play, and poof, the rally was over. Orioles RISP tally: 1-for-7.
If you can believe it, things only got worse. In the fifth, the Orioles truly reached the pinnacle of RISP failure. This time, they got runners at second and third — with no outs! — and choked it away. The inning began with O’Hearn getting hit by a pitch and Mountcastle lacing a sharp double that moved him to third. In that situation, according to various run expectancy charts, a team is expected to score at least two runs.
The O’s got zero. Laureano fouled out to the catcher. Kjerstad had another unsightly strikeout. And Mayo grounded out to short. You can’t make this stuff up. Ober miraculously made it through five innings for the Twins and gave up only two runs despite eight hits, a walk, a hit batsman, and an error. Any halfway decent major league team would’ve scored at least 5-6 runs by then. The Orioles, as we are all too aware, are not that team. Orioles RISP tally: 1-for-10.
I have some good news: the O’s finally got another hit with a man in scoring position in the sixth. Here’s the bad news: it didn’t even score a run, thanks to a great Twins defensive play and a very questionable call. Rivera led off with a double, and after Handley failed to get a bunt down and struck out, Henderson finally had a good at-bat, ripping a single to center. Third base coach Tony Mansolino aggressively waved Rivera to the plate as Byron Buxton fired home. On a bang-bang play, Rivera was ruled out.
The O’s challenged the play, and although it looked to me like Rivera’s hand touched home plate before Christian Vázquez’s glove tagged him, the replay officials apparently didn’t agree, upholding the original call. Add bad luck to the long list of things that have gone wrong for the Orioles this year. Henderson advanced to second on the play but of course he was left stranded when Holliday grounded out. Orioles RISP tally: 2-for-13.
It’s a shame the Orioles torpedoed every one of their own rallies, because Dean Kremer pitched more than well enough to win. The O’s right-hander delivered his second straight dazzling outing — working seven innings in back-to-back starts for the first time in his career — but his offense gave him no margin for error. Kremer gave up a run in the first on a Ty France RBI single and another in the sixth on Trevor Larnach’s solo homer, but otherwise he was outstanding, racking up eight strikeouts and holding Minnesota to just three hits. And yet he was saddled with a no-decision because his teammates abandoned him.
So too did his bullpen. Yennier Cano and Gregory Soto’s combined struggles blew up the game in the eighth. The former issued two walks and the latter surrendered a two-run double to Lee and a France RBI single, making it 5-2, and the O’s were officially buried.
Against the Twins bullpen, the Orioles found a way to avoid their RISP woes: by not getting any runners on base at all. Justin Topa, Griffin Jax, and closer Jhoan Duran each worked a perfect inning, and that’ll do it. What a disaster, by which I’m referring to this game, this series, and this team. All of it.
Don’t worry, we only have to endure the 2025 Orioles for another… (checks schedule) … 126 games!? Good lord.