It looks like our early season hopes of making the postseason were a bit premature. The Orioles lost 12-1 to the Red Sox yesterday on Patriots Day in Boston, garnering just 4 singles and 1 double off Boston pitching. Boston didn’t even have one of their regular starters in, but instead had Justin Masterson replacing the injured Daisuke Matsuzaka. He gave up the 1 run in 5+ innings of work, while the fabled Boston bullpen came in and gave up just 1 hit to the Orioles in nearly 4 innings of work.
The Orioles are now back down to 3rd place in the AL East, and the only team behind them is last year’s AL champion Tampa Bay Rays, who are likely to start playing a lot better soon. I don’t want to be a downer, but things have really fallen apart in the last week and I can’t help but feel this 4-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox is something we will probably get used to as the season wears on. When, oh when, will management learn from their past mistakes and start building a franchise for the future? The Marlins/Rays formula works so well. Don’t go after guys like Mark Teixeira in the offseason, but look to trade any big name players for prospects. It took real guts for the Marlins to trade Josh Beckett in his prime with Mike Lowell to the Red Sox for Hanley Ramirez and prospects, but now the Marlins look like the team to beat in the NL East and they have a team set-up for many future playoff runs. If you can’t afford to buy a team like the Yankees can, don’t pick and choose at a couple star players.
