This team surely is something, isn’t it? After a promising 5-1 victory over the D-backs, they followed that up with two stinkers to lose the series. Then, after getting rained out Friday, the Orioles had their best “vibes win” this year, making a remarkable comeback down 3-0 and winning a game that, on most nights, they lose. That should have been the launching point to more success. Unfortunately, this team just can’t have anything good happen to them, and Sunday’s game happened. Yesterday’s game was such a frustrating loss. It had everything just to grind your gears as a baseball fan.
Terrible umpires that cause Brandon Hyde to get ejected? Check.
Umpire John Bacon missed 8 calls in the first 3 innings and they all went against the Orioles.
After Bacon rang up Westburg twice on bad calls, he ejected manager Brandon Hyde for arguing.
He missed 17 calls in the game and 14 went against the O's
O's lost by 1 in 10 innings. pic.twitter.com/1VzENa8bsn
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) April 14, 2025
A bullpen that had been great all year finally has a bad outing at the worst possible time? Double-check. Going 0-for-13 with RISP? Check that one off all year. Multiple instances where balls that should have fallen in for hits get taken away, including one that would have won the game? Got that covered, too.
All of this was capped off by Jeff Hoffman coming into the ninth and tenth innings, dominating the Orioles, and blowing a kiss in their direction because I guess it’s the players’ fault the organization didn’t like his shoulder issues that caused him not to sign here? (I hope Hoffman does it against the Braves as well, because they also pulled out due to medical concerns.)
The point is that the Orioles took a game where they looked alive for the first time all year, and completely spat all over it. There is a lot wrong with this team, but these reactions will try to get down to the root of these issues.
The BABIP Gods Stay Relentless
The one thing that the Orioles can’t control is luck, and that is not on their side right now. Look at the previous paragraph about yesterday for examples of how unlucky this team is. For instance, look at how it was affecting Gunnar Henderson until yesterday. Almost every time he has hit a ball, it has been over 105 mph, yet he only has seven hits to show for it, three of which came yesterday.
It feels like every ball the Orioles hit is going to get caught. They are hitting the ball hard but right at people. They’re currently right in the middle of MLB in BABIP, 16th at .279, despite being third with a 34.2% hard-hit rate (the two teams ahead of them are 6th and 14th in BABIP, respectively).
This may also to the pitchers, though to a lesser degree. They’re seventh-worst in ERA, but 11th-worst in FIP, though xFIP matches up at seventh-worst.
Soto Had Been Great…Until he Wasn’t
I understand this looks horrible with his outing on Sunday, but Gregory Soto had been excellent The dude was one of the main reasons why the bullpen was so good early on, but unfortunately, the wheels not only feel off the car, but exploded in a fiery mess.
This is ultimately the issue with the bullpen that trickles down from the rotation not going deep enough into games. You can only dance in the fire for so long until it burns you, and Soto is a reliever who is combustible. Soto should be feeling the heat after yesterday, but that one game doesn’t erase how good he was beforehand. If he turns in more outings like Sunday, this will be a different conversation, but one bad game where the offense still had a chance to win and didn’t come up clutch (bookmark that for later) won’t blind me into giving this guy his respect for his season so far.
Felix isn’t Fully Back Yet
Ok, this is hot, but Felix Bautista doesn’t look to be back to himself yet. The velocity is what it is; he wouldn’t be pumping 100 immediately back off TJ. My primary concern is the control; he has more walks than strikeouts this year. Nearly every time Felix comes in, things get dicey with free passes. Now, I am not overly worried because of his usage. The Orioles won’t use him in back-to-back days, and he has had multiple days off between appearances. It can be hard to find consistency in those times between starts, especially with so much downtime in between.
Felix will be there for us late in the season. Right now though, in April of 2025, he is off. And that’s OK.
Cionel’s Time is Over
Well, enough positivity around this bullpen; it is time to cut bait with Cionel Perez. To be honest, I don’t know why he is still here. The fact that the O’s that the O’s chose Perez over bringing Danny Coulombe back is maddening. His ERA is awful right now, and yes, the game where the Orioles made him stay out there and eat it against the Royals does affect that. Still, this guy doesn’t deserve the leeway that he gets. Perez has been awful this year, and has regressed since his breakout in 2022; it will be shocking if he makes it to the end of 2025.
Why is this team So Un-Clutch?
We are due for an offense-complaining session. I have a lot to say about how bad they have been this year, but our guy Derek Arnold did such a good job this week summing up the issues that there isn’t much else to add to the conversation.
Yes, they showed life over the last two games but one issue is coming up: they aren’t hitting in the clutch and with men on base. It is hard to quantify clutch, but in baseball it comes down to doing the little things right and putting balls in play. As I said before, balls in play aren’t being too kind to them, but the inability to hit with men on base has been an issue before this year. It’s like no one knows what to do in these situations. Usually, it is either a strikeout or a lazy pop-up that doesn’t get the runner over. Take yesterday, for example.
Where has the "Clutch" Factor gone for the Orioles? pic.twitter.com/wOtDDCaqGt
— PigTownSports (@PigTownSports) April 14, 2025
In the ninth, Adley Rutschman got a bit lucky and blooped a double down the line. Yet, here comes Ryan O’Hearn to strike out. Then Jordan Westburg can’t get a blooper of his own to fall in. The Westburg result may have been unlucky, but if O’Hearn doesn’t strike out, Cedric Mullins will come up with a chance to win the game, and who knows what happens. Then, in the tenth, Mullins gets the runner over to third, and getting him home should be easy enough; all you need is a fly ball or a line drive to get him in. Yet Tyler O’Neill and Ramon Laurneo strike out to end the game seven pitches later. That is a microcosm of the issues right now on offense. The Orioles can’t get luck on their side with these balls in play and can’t stop striking out. Even those seven runs they scored yesterday have some asterisks next to them because two of those runs were unearned because of lousy defense by the Blue Jays.
Has the offense been better these two games? Yes, but deeper issues are starting to show the cracks in the foundation that is the Orioles Offense.
This team is frustrating to watch on a nightly basis. Maybe this bad April will all be a memory once everyone comes back healthy, and we look back on games like this and the Hoffman situation and laugh. Perhaps Sunday’s game is the type of game the Orioles will have for now: one with an incipient offense, a bruised and beaten-to-a-pulp starting staff, and an overworked combustible bullpen that can’t/won’t use their all-star closer on a nightly basis.
Maybe all they need to do is get healthy and weather the storm for a while, or it could all be too late before those players even return. April has been brutal, and it’s not getting easier with the Guardians, who the O’s never hit, and the red hot Reds coming to town.
Vibes need to change, and fast.
