The Loss Column — Baltimore Sports Blog and Community

Three games in Boston this weekend: who’s excited?

Here’s your Radhames Liz vs. Julian Tavarez open thread. A win here and a strong performance by the rookie could really help smooth things over. Keep hope alive.

I don’t know what to say. But because it’s what I do, I’ll still say something.

I did an image search just now for “futility.” That search turned up this page, and the following image (click both pics for larger versions):

What we’ve got here is a team facing an epic losing streak. This is the kind of thing that fans of pretty much every other team, in every other sport, look at and say “wow, I’m sure glad we’re not that bad.”

Remember 4-32? This might get worse. Throughout all of the struggles we’ve seen over the past five years there has always been something to fall back on. We’ve always been able to say “we’re not Pittsburgh, we’re not Kansas City.”

I’ve got a splash of cold water for you: the Orioles aren’t Pittsburgh or Kansas City, they’re worse. At sixteen games below .500 the O’s currently outpace only the Devil Rays, Marlins, and Nationals — each of whom has, arguably, a brighter outlook next year than the black-and-orange.

One of whom just swept us at home.

So maybe that first image isn’t the one we want. Maybe it’s time to settle in and make this next one our mantra. It might be the only way.

I wasn’t going to bother with an open thread tonight, but I couldn’t miss the chance to alert you that Rob Bell has been DFA’ed in favor of John Leicester. That news comes courtesy of Loss Column ballpark reporter Staci. Thank her.

I can’t help but laugh when I read these comments from White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. If I didn’t know better I’d swear he was one of us:

“I’m tired of seeing that [expletive], day in and day out. And I don’t want to spend a miserable September seeing the same [expletive]. If I have to see the same [expletive], I told [team GM Kenny Williams], ‘Bring somebody up. [Expletive] it.’ If it’s my fault, I should be moving out of here then. If it’s my fault, [expletive] fire my ass and I’ll be fine. I have the job to do, and I get paid a lot of [expletive] money to make this club work, but it’s not easy to work with people like that. It’s not easy.”

”You see this since April,” Guillen said. ”I keep giving people a chance to succeed. A pat on the back. I wish I played for a manager like that. I swear to God I wish I could have played for a [expletive] manager like that. Every time you fail and keep putting guys out there who fail day-in and day-out, that’s easy to play.

”You keep failing like that, well, [hitting coach] Greg Walker doesn’t hit. Ozzie Guillen doesn’t hit. [Pitching coach] Don Cooper isn’t pitching. Well, then, have fun.”

Swap out a few names and you’ve basically got the State of the Orioles Union circa August, 2007. So sad.

The Birds carried a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning tonight. Did you feel comfortable?

The bullpen failed again, the team limped into extra innings, and the (inevitable?) loss came in inning 12.

This all happened after they announced that Erik Bedard will miss his next start. Additionally, my car broke down, three of my best friends died, someone stole my identity and used it to buy a house in Long Beach, and my dog peed on my forehead at five o’clock this morning.

I can’t find much to say about the Orioles right now. They’re on pace to post the worst bullpen ERA in the history of the team. The season is over and every move that really matters will take place between November and February.

In the meantime, we suffer.

However…

We still have seven games against the Red Sox and six against the Janquis (including a season-ending home series). We cannot turn our backs on this team. If we do that we are turning our backs on Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Kevin Millar, Erik Bedard, Jeremy Guthrie, and the handful of other players who make that bird on their hat worth caring about. I feel for those guys. They deserve better.

Keep it in mind as you yearn for Hot Stove Action.

Give Joe Angel credit. Round about the time the Rays scored their 45th run tonight, Angel actually said “I can’t take this nightmare any longer…wake me up and kill me.” I’m not sure a hundred Shakespeares could say it better.

For anyone who thinks I’m too positive, or that I don’t criticize the team when it’s warranted, or that I’m an apologist, here you go: this is inexcusable. There’s no massaging it, no explaining it away, no finding the good amidst the bad.

It’s not about tonight. Under normal circumstances a game like this could be excused as “just one of those games.” Uh-uh. This makes five games on the current home stand (including the 30-3 debacle) in which the O’s had the lead and still ended up losing. That, folks, qualifies as a pattern.

Who plays on this team? Are we dealing with men here? Are we dealing with men who take pride in their work and feel shame when they fail? Who are these people?

To be fair, the bullpen was overworked under Sam Perlozzo and the fallout is catching up. That’s a fact. But there comes a time for accountability, and this is that time.

Andy MacPhail and DT deserve a chance to show what they can do. It’ll be awhile before we know what’s what with them. Until then, I’m putting it on the players.

The name on the front of the jersey (whether or not it says “Baltimore”) means a hell of a lot more than the name on the back. So from here on out, I’m looking for one thing and one thing only: pride. That means hard work, execution, and passion. The rest of this season is an audition, and I will hate relentlessly on every single player who dogs it from here to there.

Disgusting.

It’s “no excuses” time with Daniel Cabrera on the hill against Jason Hammel. Should the Orioles fail to take two of three then…well, let’s not talk about that right now.

Oh, my good friends, when is this going to be over? It seemed like God himself wanted this preseason to be put to sleep. From the delayed kickoff to the lightning bolt that not only shut down FedEx field but may have saved Kyle Boller’s life, this game was doomed form the start.

The weather aside, this was almost a total disaster for the Ravens.

Let’s start with what went right. Derrick Mason made an awesome cut to get into the end zone for the Ravens’ only TD.

Now that we have that out of the way: mistakes. Everywhere. No two people looked worse than Adam Terry and Jared Gaither. Look, if you can’t stay onsides, you shouldn’t be in the NFL. And the blocking, or lack thereof, that these two displayed was Bush league at best.

I know, everyone says, “Oh just wait, Jon Ogden will make it right.” Jon Ogden cannot make up for mental errors and poor blocking all by himself. The Redskins destroyed our O-line. (You read that right, the mother-fornicating Redskins).

By the second half it was apparent that the only way the Ravens could stop the defensive rush was by putting Steve Buscemi in the rafters with a sniper rifle. Finally the lightning stuck and the mockery was over.

I am so weary of this preseason. It happens every year. You get all psyched up for football and then by the third week of the preseason you realize how watered down and drawn out the whole thing is.

I can’t wait for the 10th. We have 2 more weeks and one more game to right the ship before the Ravens step on the country’s biggest stage for a tough division game in Cinci. Just two more weeks. Thank God.

(Getty Images photo by Greg Fiume, swiped from the Virginian-Pilot)