Baltimore Orioles: Closing September on a low note

The Baltimore Orioles can breathe a sigh of relief that the month of September has come to a close.

Sadly, the Baltimore Orioles finished this month losing their fourth consecutive game and second in a row to the Tampa Bay Rays. The final score was 3-4.

With this loss, the Orioles finish the month of September with only 7 wins, but with 20 losses. Two of those wins came in the previous series against the Rays. The two teams play game 162 on Sunday afternoon. Then, the Orioles players head to their homes until spring training in 2018.

Quick game recap

Saturday night’s game at Tropicana Field featured Miguel Castro pitching against Chris Archer. Castro gave up three runs in 3.1 innings. Archer threw for five innings and kept the O’s scoreless. Fortunately for the O’s, the Rays bullpen is flawed so they were able to get three runs in the 8th and 9th innings.

Unfortunately, for the O’s, the Rays were able to score off of Donnie Hart in the 7th. That was all the Rays needed to cement their lead.

Runs were scored by Jonathan Schoop and Trey Mancini who had the one-two spot in the lineup. Pedro Alvarez earned a pair of RBIs and Anthony Santander earned the third one. J.J. Hardy also scored a run for the Birds. In what has become typical for the Orioles in the September of Struggles, no one hit a home run. When no one homers, the Orioles do not win.

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Not the worst, but nowhere near the best

At the close of September, the Orioles are tied for last place in the AL East with the Toronto Blue Jays. But, when it comes to the entire American League, the Orioles are not at rock bottom. The Orioles have a winning percentage of .466 while three teams have worse records. At the bottom of the pile are the Detroit Tigers with a record of .398, then the Chicago White Sox with a .416. The Oakland A’s are sitting just below the Orioles with a record of .463.

Sad September records in the MLB

Believe it or not, the Orioles are not the only team with a pathetic September record. The Detroit Tigers have only won six games in September, but they also traded away nearly all of their top players. Surprising, the team with the best record in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have only won 11 games in this final month of the season. The San Francisco Giants only won 10 games in September, but they are tied with the Tigers at the bottom of the barrel.

Next: Get Ready for Opening Day 2018

It is difficult to imagine that the Orioles could play any worse than they did during that stretch in June where they gave up five or more runs in 20 games. But, it happened. And now it’s over.