Orioles fans' biggest fear just showed its face vs. Red Sox in finale

Coming into the year, we knew that the Orioles rotation was going to be thin. It wasn't a strong point for them last year, in large part thanks to a trio of Tommy John surgeries to three of their top four projected starters. But this year, being down Corbin Burnes and replacing him with a couple question marks in Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano, there were bound to be some early problems.

Well, we saw those problems come to life last night in Morton's second start of the year. The 42 year old gave up 5 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, and while he did strike out 10 batters he wasn't anywhere close to effective enough to put the Orioles in a position to win the game. Baltimore wound up losing 8-4 after the bullpen coughed up a couple late runs.

Morton will have plenty more chances to right the ship, and it's fair to think that he can be a positive addition to the O's rotation this year, when all is said and done. But this is the downside, the ugly part of the rotation that fans knew we'd see before long. The rotation is the weak spot right now. We all knew it coming into the year and despite the front office's attempts to patch over the hole left by Burnes with value options, they certainly knew the risks involved with that strategy as well.

The Orioles' strategy of a rotation filled with fourth and fifth starters doesn't seem to be working

Looking ahead, it doesn't get much better. Later tonight, we'll see righty Dean Kremer and career 4.33 ERA take the mound in Kansas City. Kremer has done well to stick in the back of the O's rotation over the last three years but at 29 years old, he's just about out of time to prove he's anything more than a fifth starter.

Sugano, billed as a control and command guy over in Japan, looked alright in his first start of the year in Toronto. He'll get a decent matchup against the Royals this weekend but even so, striking out 1 batter in 4.0 innings isn't really going to cut it. He's going to have to find a way to miss bats, or he'll wind up getting pummeled by major league hitters, much in the way that Morton did on Thursday.

Things aren't all doom and gloom in Birdland right now. There's a lot to be optimistic about and we're set to see Gunnar Henderson return to the lineup later tonight, which should be a major offensive boost. But if the rotation can't keep up, and in the season's existing small sample it looks like they'll struggle, then all the runs in the world won't make up for the rotation's shortcomings.