Only in baseball can a one-hour, 44-minute delay stretch for 13 hours, 29 minutes.
The seventh inning stretch began 21 minutes after the first pitch on Thursday afternoon at 12:06 because the game was postponed on Wednesday night due to a driving rain storm. After the Orioles lost the game 5-1, they waited about 20 minutes to begin another game they would lose, 7-1, which made for 4 hours, 39 minutes of misery at Camden Yards.
But if Thursday?s game-and-a-half seemed long, wait until the Orioles get further into summer.
The Orioles (48-53) have 32 more home games, including 25 against teams with winning records. The Orioles don?t play a team witha losing record at home until September, when they welcome Cleveland (44-56) before closing the season with a three-game set against the same Blue Jays (51-51) who schooled the Orioles this week.
But toss out the home games.
Look over the entire schedule, and notice 49 of the final 60 games are against teams with a .500 record or better.
Is this the beginning of the swoon? If so, it?s the same story we?ve seen repeated over and over.
The Orioles are the high schooler with an early summer romance who after being spurned around July 4, spends the remainder of the nice weather hiding shamefully in the basement.
The Orioles have lost three in a row, four of five and 11 of 15.
In all reality, the Orioles are right about where most fans and analysts thought they?d be ? in last place in the American League East. They are battling, but they are just not good enough to jump the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and Blue Jays in the standings.
The Orioles lost two games on Thursday to a team with better pitching. Toronto completed Thursday?s suspended game, 5-1, and then left town with a 7-1 win in a game where Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera (6-6) allowed 11 hits and seven runs, and failed to record an out in the sixth inning.
“It?s hard, it?s tough,” Cabrera said. “Every time you go out there you know you can put it first strike, you try to throw a very good pitch the next pitch and they hit it. You just keep working.”
Toronto starter Roy Halladay proved he?s good, and when spotted a 7-0 lead, he?s pretty much unbeatable.
“He?s probably the best in the league,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “He makes pitches when he has to and he?s got command of both sides of the plate. He?s exceptional.”
Toronto got the leadoff man on in five consecutive innings, which led to four runs. Meantime, the Orioles stranded runners on third base in three of the first four innings. They finished with seven hits.
The Orioles fell to 3-5 on the homestand, which concludes with three games against the American League West-leading Angels (62-39) this weekend, beginning tonight at 7:05.
Yep. It might get ugly.
Sean Welsh covers the Orioles for The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected]
