The Twins series, August 20-23

[SeaBird]

Good news: the Yankees, Blue Jays, Royals, Astros, Angels and Rangers all lost yesterday. Orioles get a mulligan. Make it right today team.

No mulligan at all. They missed an opportunity. And that is something they cannot afford to do.

[LookitsPuck]

No mulligan at all. They missed an opportunity. And that is something they cannot afford to do.

Yup. They keep getting mulligans instead of taking advantage. The mark of a .500 team, unfortunately.

Not sure if people notice this or not but there are only 42 games left on the schedule. That's it. We've been saying for far too long that there's plenty of time. Losing to the Twins as badly as they did and having the starting rotation stink for what seems like a month straight doesn't bode well at all.

[Uli2001]

That Twins series was the second lowest point of the season for me. The lowest, of course, was the sweep in New York.

New low is here.

[Moshagge3]

The Twins' middle relief was absolutely atrocious against the Yankees, so I fully expect at least one frustrating 15-inning game where those guys put up zero after zero.

I was really optimistic to think they could battle for 15. The Twins bullpen, tho.

[25 Nuggets]

Biggest fail of the year. Four game series, at home, against a Wild Card rival not playing well. I hope they're embarrassed.

Runner up: 1-3 at home vs Texas prior to the All Star break.

[Frobby]

Yeah, when the recap of the 2015 season is written, going 0-7 against the Twins is going to loom pretty large, especially considering that they are a poor road team and yet came in and swept us.

I think the worst part, for me, was O'Day and Britton blowing leads late. That's something we haven't seen often. We easily could have split this series.

[Sanfran327]

Yeah, when the recap of the 2015 season is written, going 0-7 against the Twins is going to loom pretty large, especially considering that they are a poor road team and yet came in and swept us.

I think the worst part, for me, was O'Day and Britton blowing leads late. That's something we haven't seen often. We easily could have split this series.

As bad as that was, were those innings really on them? A series of weak contact and jam shots that wind up as infield hits are hardly their fault. Sometimes there's really no one to blame.

[TouchemAll]

This series was the tale of who these Orioles REALLY are, they loss to essentially another POOR RD. TEAM .500 club and got swept AT HOME.

No excuses they got OUTPLAYED in almost every facet of the game against the Twins it's BIG time gut check time in KC.

I'll be honest it will be some what interesting to see if this team folds or holds now. I don't expect much so anything positive out of this bunch will be fun.

[Frobby]

As bad as that was, were those innings really on them? A series of weak contact and jam shots that wind up as infield hits are hardly their fault. Sometimes there's really no one to blame.

I didn't mean to blame them so much as to say that they very rarely give up leads and it's a shame it had to happen now. I do want to make one point, though: when you induce a lot of ground balls, you are going to lose that way sometimes. Many of Jim Johnson's blown saves looked similar to the one Britton blew yesterday. It's an occupational hazard.

Also, O'Day walking the leadoff hitter and then hitting a guy was not helpful and certainly his own fault.

[25 Nuggets]

I didn't mean to blame them so much as to say that they very rarely give up leads and it's a shame it had to happen now. I do want to make one point, though: when you induce a lot of ground balls, you are going to lose that way sometimes. Many of Jim Johnson's blown saves looked similar to the one Britton blew yesterday. It's an occupational hazard.

Also, O'Day walking the leadoff hitter and then hitting a guy was not helpful and certainly his own fault.

So how long before certain Oriole fans start calling for Britton's head?

(sorry -- still can't get over the booing of Jim Johnson)

[JR Oriole]

So how long before certain Oriole fans start calling for Britton's head?

(sorry -- still can't get over the booing of Jim Johnson)

I don't live in Baltimore so I don't know (or remember) the extent to which Johnson was booed in 2013. The homeruns he gave up to Martin and Ibanez in the 2012 ALDS were very Benitez-esque (incredibly deflating, gut punches) and I think after that, and just the brutal number of blown saves he had in 2013, the fans just had enough.

[Burg]

I didn't mean to blame them so much as to say that they very rarely give up leads and it's a shame it had to happen now. I do want to make one point, though: when you induce a lot of ground balls, you are going to lose that way sometimes. Many of Jim Johnson's blown saves looked similar to the one Britton blew yesterday. It's an occupational hazard.

Also, O'Day walking the leadoff hitter and then hitting a guy was not helpful and certainly his own fault.

This is also what happens when you don't score runs and every game comes down to one run. Play close games and you can lose due to bad luck much more easily.

[Frobby]

I don't live in Baltimore so I don't know (or remember) the extent to which Johnson was booed in 2013. The homeruns he gave up to Martin and Ibanez in the 2012 ALDS were very Benitez-esque (incredibly deflating, gut punches) and I think after that, and just the brutal number of blown saves he had in 2013, the fans just had enough.

I think many people don't fully appreciate the contribution JJ made in 2012. 51 saves in 54 chances is truly outstanding, and we won two of the games where he was credited with a blown save. He had an extremely heavy workload, and a lot of his saves were of the one-run variety. If we had an average closer that year, we would not have been in the playoffs, full stop. Admittedly, he had a rough ALDS, though he did save the two wins we had in that series, preserving a one-run lead in both games. But we aren't even in the playoffs without what he did in the regular season.

[JR Oriole]

I think many people don't fully appreciate the contribution JJ made in 2012. 51 saves in 54 chances is truly outstanding, and we won two of the games where he was credited with a blown save. He had an extremely heavy workload, and a lot of his saves were of the one-run variety. If we had an average closer that year, we would not have been in the playoffs, full stop. Admittedly, he had a rough ALDS, though he did save the two wins we had in that series, preserving a one-run lead in both games. But we aren't even in the playoffs without what he did in the regular season.

That is correct. I don't think people remember how amazing it was that the 2012 team literally did not suffer a single walk-off loss until Ibanez hit that homer off Matusz. We lost 2 games to NY at home in extras in April but we (obviously) had the last at-bat in those. So we really went an entire year without a painful loss....until the ALDS. That was probably the easiest year ever for us to be fans and JJ was a big part of it.