Baltimore Orioles Daily: Birds blanked by Nationals in series opener

The Baltimore Orioles offense was nowhere to be found on Memorial Day, sinking their chances against the Nationals.

The Baltimore Orioles had a Memorial Day to forget, falling to the red-hot Washington Nationals. Once again, the Birds struggled mightily on offense, and the result was a 6-0 loss.

O’s starter Alex Cobb secured eight outs without incident, but he let the game get away from him in the third inning, when he surrendered a three-run homer to Anthony Rendon. Five innings later, shutdown reliever Richard Bleier was strangely ineffective, allowing the Nationals to rally for three more runs. At 2.33, his ERA is as high as it’s been since April 2.

The offense, meanwhile, was overmatched by Gio Gonzalez, who threw 7.2 scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 2.10. The Birds have now scored just six runs over their last four games — no wonder theirs has been the least productive offense in the American League by a wide margin.

They’ll try to snap their three-game losing streak tonight at 7:05 p.m. ET. Until then, here’s what you might have missed yesterday.

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Best of Orioles news and analysis across the web from 5/28/18

Taking a hard — and realistic — look at the Orioles’ trade possibilities with Manny Machado: Machado is one of the premier talents in the game, but market conditions may force the Birds to settle for a less-than-stellar trade package. Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun lays out several potential landing spots for the franchise shortstop.

Orioles minors recap 5/29: Losses all around: Demoralizing as Monday’s game was, the Birds weren’t the only team in the Orioles organization that wound up in the loss column. Paul Folkemer of Camden Chat has more on the disappointing day of baseball.

Peter Schmuck’s Orioles grades for the week of May 21-27: The defense got a decent mark, but the Birds struggled in all other areas. Read along as Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun provides his weekly grades.

Trey Mancini slides down to sixth in Orioles’ Monday batting order: With a .128 batting average over his last 12 games, Mancini was dropped to sixth in the O’s lineup on Monday. Quick — raise your hand if you thought Joey Rickard would be batting leadoff in late May!

Next: The top 5 strikeout pitchers in Orioles history

What do you think: will the Orioles even the series today? Let us know on social media, and keep it here at Birds Watcher for more Baltimore Orioles news and analysis.