The numbers following the Orioles’ season-ending, 10-1 loss to Toronto on Sunday say it all.
It was their 11th loss in the past 12 games.
It was their 11th straight losing season.
But here’s the biggest number of all for the Orioles (68-93), who lost the same amount of games as they did last season: 20 — as in it’s been two decades since they finished in last place in the American League East.
But as the Orioles were finishing another terrible season, perennial cellar-dweller Tampa Bay is preparing for its first playoff game this week.
The Orioles’ season ended in front of a crowd of 19,554 at Camden Yards — the 32nd time in 78 home games the team failed to draw 20,000 — after Baltimore began the season by giving fans hope.
“In the first three months, we were as competitive as anybody,” outfielder Nick Markakis said. “Unfortunately, we had some injuries in our pitching staff, and we had a long battle for the last three months of the season.”
The team limped to a 6-28 finish, further exposing the weaknesses in a pitching staff befitting an expansion team. The Orioles finished with a 22-50 record against division opponents, the third-worst divisional winning percentage since Major League Baseball adopted the unbalanced schedule in 2001.
The last time the Orioles finished in last was 1988, when the club lost 107 games and finished at the bottom of a seven-team division.
The Orioles’ season attendance of 1,950,077 was the lowest in Oriole Park history. It marks the first time the club has drawn fewer than two million fans at home since 1988.
“Well, you’re probably going to get fans coming to the ballpark, especially late in the year, if you’re winning and we haven’t done that,” Manager Dave Trembley said. “I thought the first four and a half months we were competitive. We won a lot of come from behind games but obviously the last six weeks we haven’t.”
Sitting at his locker recently, one of the Orioles’ younger, more talented players said simply “there are going to be a lot of changes in here.”
He’s right.
Two of the team’s best veterans — outfielder Jay Payton and first baseman Kevin Millar — will be free agents during the offseason, and probably played their final game as an Oriole on Sunday.
In what also could be his final game as an Oriole, second baseman Brian Roberts went 0-for-2 and left to a standing ovation after being hit by a Jesse Litsch pitch on the right shin in the sixth inning. An impending free agent after next season, Roberts will be a hot commodity on the trade market again this winter, as will left-handed slugger Aubrey Huff, who finished with a .304 average, 32 home runs and 108 RBI. Catcher Ramon Hernandez, who looked uninspired for much of the season, could also be dumped in favor of hot prospect Matt Wieters.
And every pitcher — save for Sunday’ s starter, ace Jeremy Guthrie (10-12), and maybe a few relievers — is disposable.
Changes are inevitable.
