Yes well let’s see if we can win a game , one game first. Because we ain’t winning no division without winning more games. And baseball history will then sadly record “the historic collapse of the Orioles in 2023” as we join many other ill fated teams over the years.
I think everyone just needs to face facts that without Bautista this is a completely different team.
It didn’t come through at first because the team was still able to win but since Boston broke their 6 game win streak on 9/10, the Os are 5-8 and have 2 3 (or more) game losing streaks, which doubled the amount of 3 game losing streaks they had all season.
The bullpen roles have become an issue and everyone being shifted around because of that injury is becoming an issue.
Combine that with starting pitching that isn’t that good after our top 2 guys and you have a really bad scenario.
This team built themselves up early on because of how great the Cano-Bautista duo were. Eventually the offense started to catch up but Bautista, who imo is still the MVO, getting hurt changed the entire dynamic of this team.
Cano is tough to trust in high leverage situations because he simply doesn’t miss enough bats and doesn’t get any Ks any more.
I said at the end of August that I felt they would lose their first playoff series because of the pitching and Bautista’s injury.
The only thing that gives me some hope is that GRod isn’t really slowing down and I expected that to happen.
But overall, I still feel they will be 1 and done. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think we have many, if any, legitimately trustworthy BP arms in the biggest situations in the playoffs and I don’t think we will get more than 6 innings out of any starter and even 6 full innings may be unlikely. We are going to need the pen to get 12-15, at least, per game and I don’t like their chances of doing that while holding a lead.
The Bautista injury just changed everything. If he comes back, maybe that changes but obviously it depends when he comes back and how he looks.
I still think they do enough to win the division and they will get the much needed days off to help set things up but these pitchers will still be what they are and what they are isn’t likely to be good enough.
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