Hang on just a little bit longer....

[eddie83]

I’m not home yet but Rays-Jays are on MLBN right now. 

[Chelsea_Phil]

41 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

I’m not home yet but Rays-Jays are on MLBN right now. 

Who do we want to win to give us a ghost of a chance?

[SteveA]

15 minutes ago, Chelsea_Phil said:

Who do we want to win to give us a ghost of a chance?

We have 6 games left with Toronto, and we have the tiebreak with them.

We have 0 games left with Tampa, and they have the tiebreak on us.

We need Tampa to beat Toronto in as many of these 8 games in the next 11 days starting yesterday as possible.

Last night Tampa led in the 8th but Bichette hit a HR to win for Toronto.   That was not a good start to the TB/Tor showdown from our poitn of view.   Rays are up 4-0 in the first game of the doubleheader today.

[eddie83]

Just now, Chelsea_Phil said:

Who do we want to win to give us a ghost of a chance?

 

 

Manoah was sick and why he didn’t start today. Wanted to let people know that. 

Bottom line is Orioles need to win both vs WAS. If for sake of argument BAL sweeps WAS and TB/TOR split the series the rest of the way  it winds up TOR wins series 3-2 then the Orioles would be 4 back in loss column vs both. The head to head vs TOR is an opportunity we don’t have vs TB. We would be better off if one team wins the rest obviously. 
 

Series rest of way. - loss column behind 

4-0 TB                         6 TB, 2 TOR
3-1  TB                         5 TB, 3 TOR

spllit                            4 TB, 4 TOR

1-3 TB                         3 TB, 5 TOR

0-4 TB                         2 TB, 6 TOR

Of course with TB you can add one game behind on all of that. I just hope we win both in WAS and give ourselves a chance. 

[OriolesMagic83]

36 minutes ago, SteveA said:

We have 6 games left with Toronto, and we have the tiebreak with them.

We have 0 games left with Tampa, and they have the tiebreak on us.

We need Tampa to beat Toronto in as many of these 8 games in the next 11 days starting yesterday as possible.

Last night Tampa led in the 8th but Bichette hit a HR to win for Toronto.   That was not a good start to the TB/Tor showdown from our poitn of view.   Rays are up 4-0 in the first game of the doubleheader today.

When you have to depend on other teams to do things for you to have a chance, you have already failed.  O's had their chance vs. Toronto and blew it.

[SteveA]

1 minute ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

When you have to depend on other teams to do things for you to have a chance, you have already failed.  O's had their chance vs. Toronto and blew it.

We had 3 chances at Toronto... and we blew the first one.   Badly.

Since we have 6 games left with Toronto, we are technically not at the point yet where we HAVE to depend on other teams.   Win all 6 and we catch the Jays.   That's a big ask of course, and very unlikely.  But we are not yet officially at the point where we are dependent on other teams.   We probably  will be after Sunday, barring a great sequence of events in the next few days.

While Labor Day, or last Saturday, or Sunday seemed to be the last straw for most people on the Hangout, I think the Orioles braintrust is going to stay in what they consider "compete mode" through the trip to Toronto, which means through Sunday.   If we haven't significantly closed the gap by then, you might see them do things that look more to the future than to trying to win this year.   But I don't think they have made that mental leap yet like most around here have.

[OriolesMagic83]

17 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Blue Jays almost look like they are dressed up in the Angels red jersey uniforms. 

 

Is that one of those stupid "city" uniforms?  Can't decide which is uglier Boston's or Padres' City uniforms.

[Tony-OH]

14 minutes ago, SteveA said:

We had 3 chances at Toronto... and we blew the first one.   Badly.

Since we have 6 games left with Toronto, we are technically not at the point yet where we HAVE to depend on other teams.   Win all 6 and we catch the Jays.   That's a big ask of course, and very unlikely.  But we are not yet officially at the point where we are dependent on other teams.   We probably  will be after Sunday, barring a great sequence of events in the next few days.

While Labor Day, or last Saturday, or Sunday seemed to be the last straw for most people on the Hangout, I think the Orioles braintrust is going to stay in what they consider "compete mode" through the trip to Toronto, which means through Sunday.   If we haven't significantly closed the gap by then, you might see them do things that look more to the future than to trying to win this year.   But I don't think they have made that mental leap yet like most around here have.

C'mon man. I mean, I get it, we haven't been in contention for anything but the first overall pick since 2016, but when your hope is supported by a likelyhood of situation being at almost zero, you have to start realizing you are grasping at straws at best.

The Orioles are 5.5 game back with 21 games to play and don't forget, Cleveland is ahead of us by a 1.5 games too, so yes, we do need some help. So not only do the Orioles need to sweep a superior team in the Blue Jays for 6 straight games, we also have to hope that we play the same winning baseball as them in the other 15 games. Then add in that we have to jump another team too, and we're not just talking about being good fans until the math doesn't play out, we're just being silly.

THE ORIOLES ARE NOT GOING TO BE IN THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR. And that's ok. Let's just hope they can finish over .500 with players of the future doing well down the stretch.

 

[Spy Fox]

4 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

C'mon man. I mean, I get it, we haven't been in contention for anything but the first overall pick since 2016, but when your hope is supported by a likelyhood of situation being at almost zero, you have to start realizing you are grasping at straws at best.

The Orioles are 5.5 game back with 21 games to play and don't forget, Cleveland is ahead of us by a 1.5 games too, so yes, we do need some help. So not only do the Orioles need to sweep a superior team in the Blue Jays for 6 straight games, we also have to hope that we play the same winning baseball as them in the other 15 games. Then add in that we have to jump another team too, and we're not just talking about being good fans until the math doesn't play out, we're just being silly.

THE ORIOLES ARE NOT GOING TO BE IN THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR. And that's ok. Let's just hope they can finish over .500 with players of the future doing well down the stretch.

Completely agree, though we do not actually have to top Cleveland since they are leading the Central. We're still ahead of Chicago and all the other teams that aren't in playoff spots, so we do "only" need to pass one of the three teams in the WC spots. 

[OriolesMagic83]

18 minutes ago, SteveA said:

We had 3 chances at Toronto... and we blew the first one.   Badly.

Since we have 6 games left with Toronto, we are technically not at the point yet where we HAVE to depend on other teams.   Win all 6 and we catch the Jays.   That's a big ask of course, and very unlikely.  But we are not yet officially at the point where we are dependent on other teams.   We probably  will be after Sunday, barring a great sequence of events in the next few days.

While Labor Day, or last Saturday, or Sunday seemed to be the last straw for most people on the Hangout, I think the Orioles braintrust is going to stay in what they consider "compete mode" through the trip to Toronto, which means through Sunday.   If we haven't significantly closed the gap by then, you might see them do things that look more to the future than to trying to win this year.   But I don't think they have made that mental leap yet like most around here have.

When Aguillar gets released and Odor gets benched, then I know the O's have given up on this year.  Oddly releasing Aguillar will make the O's better this year and next.

[Tony-OH]

4 minutes ago, Spy Fox said:

Completely agree, though we do not actually have to top Cleveland since they are leading the Central. We're still ahead of Chicago and all the other teams that aren't in playoff spots, so we do "only" need to pass one of the three teams in the WC spots. 

Ah, good point on that. I don't know why BR lists them in the WC standings without some kind of asterisk. My fault though on that, should have checked.

[eddie83]

TB held on and won 4-2. Bichette was up with 2 on and 2 out. Grounded out. 
 

Orioles 5 back in loss column. 

[SteveA]

3 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

C'mon man. I mean, I get it, we haven't been in contention for anything but the first overall pick since 2016, but when your hope is supported by a likelyhood of situation being at almost zero, you have to start realizing you are grasping at straws at best.

The Orioles are 5.5 game back with 21 games to play and don't forget, Cleveland is ahead of us by a 1.5 games too, so yes, we do need some help. So not only do the Orioles need to sweep a superior team in the Blue Jays for 6 straight games, we also have to hope that we play the same winning baseball as them in the other 15 games. Then add in that we have to jump another team too, and we're not just talking about being good fans until the math doesn't play out, we're just being silly.

THE ORIOLES ARE NOT GOING TO BE IN THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR. And that's ok. Let's just hope they can finish over .500 with players of the future doing well down the stretch.

 

Wrong.  Cleveland is winning the AL Central, they are not ahead of us in the wild card race.

And no, I didn't say we needed to sweep Toronto.   I was replying to someone who said we need other teams help.   To win without other team's help, yes we need to sweep Toronto.   But if we win 4 of 6 vs Toronto, or 5 of 6, yes, we need a little help, but asking Tampa, one of the best teams in baseball, to play well is not that unreasonable.

Look, I'm not going to keep going back and forth.   I know our chances are slim.   Very, very slim.  We will have to start playing a lot better than we have lately.  You know, like the team that went 47-26 between June 11 and September 3, that we are a whopping 10 days removed from.   If we don't do that, we are dead in the water.    You believe it is impossible for us to play at that kind of level for 22 games the rest of the way, even though we did it for 71 games ending just 9 days ago.   OK, you are probably right.   We are probably not going to play well the rest of the way, we are almoot certainly not going to play well enough to catch the Blue Jays.

So you have made a mental adjustment and are ready to throw in the towel and worry only about next year and not trying to win as much.   That's fine.   You and I disagree.   I think (but I could be wrong) that RIGHT NOW the Orioles management is on my side of this issue and through Sunday, they are going to try to their best to win these games.   If they haven't closed some significant ground by Sunday, then Monday when we come home to Detroit, I will be ready to join you in the quitters crowd, and I think you will see that the Orioles will do the same.   The remaining series (vs out-of-it Detroit, division-locked-up Houston, out-of-it Boston, division-locked-up (by then) New York and wild-card-locked up (by then) Toronto won't mean anything at all.   

Anyway, I'm not going to go back and forth endlessly in the same argument.  I've stated my opinion.   I know our chances are slim, I just don't want to throw in the towel quite yet.   You are ready to, and the majority opinion around here agrees with you.   

[Tony-OH]

21 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Wrong.  Cleveland is winning the AL Central, they are not ahead of us in the wild card race.

And no, I didn't say we needed to sweep Toronto.   I was replying to someone who said we need other teams help.   To win without other team's help, yes we need to sweep Toronto.   But if we win 4 of 6 vs Toronto, or 5 of 6, yes, we need a little help, but asking Tampa, one of the best teams in baseball, to play well is not that unreasonable.

Look, I'm not going to keep going back and forth.   I know our chances are slim.   Very, very slim.  We will have to start playing a lot better than we have lately.  You know, like the team that went 47-26 between June 11 and September 3, that we are a whopping 10 days removed from.   If we don't do that, we are dead in the water.    You believe it is impossible for us to play at that kind of level for 22 games the rest of the way, even though we did it for 71 games ending just 9 days ago.   OK, you are probably right.   We are probably not going to play well the rest of the way, we are almoot certainly not going to play well enough to catch the Blue Jays.

So you have made a mental adjustment and are ready to throw in the towel and worry only about next year and not trying to win as much.   That's fine.   You and I disagree.   I think (but I could be wrong) that RIGHT NOW the Orioles management is on my side of this issue and through Sunday, they are going to try to their best to win these games.   If they haven't closed some significant ground by Sunday, then Monday when we come home to Detroit, I will be ready to join you in the quitters crowd, and I think you will see that the Orioles will do the same.   The remaining series (vs out-of-it Detroit, division-locked-up Houston, out-of-it Boston, division-locked-up (by then) New York and wild-card-locked up (by then) Toronto won't mean anything at all.   

Anyway, I'm not going to go back and forth endlessly in the same argument.  I've stated my opinion.   I know our chances are slim, I just don't want to throw in the towel quite yet.   You are ready to, and the majority opinion around here agrees with you.   

I don't believe if we go back to being a 47-26 between June 11 and September 3 team (unlikely) that will be enough to overtake the Blue Jays unless they collapse. Yes, i'm ready to throw in the towel because I'm realistic. 

Honestly though, it doesn't matter whether they "are going for it" or not, the team is still going to try and win. My only point in all of this is that Odor and Aguilar should not be the lineup much if at all from this point on. Odor has earned his right to play out the year but can do it from the bench with Chirinos. 

Stowers is the guy that needs to be in the lineup almost every day down the stretch. Vavra they can pick and choose times to get him in, but honestly, his defensive and power short comings really don't give him a ton of chance at playing for the Orioles as a starter without a lot of injuries now or in the future.

[eddie83]

This week is their chance. Can’t control the TB/TOR series but can control how they do.