Orioles' longtime weakness continues to plague Baltimore — even under Craig Albernaz

The Baltimore Orioles suffered a series of embarrassing events over the weekend. Losing 17-1 to any team — much less the train wreck known as the Boston Red Sox — is embarrassing. The back-to-back brutal losses and lopsided scoring have distracted from the main reason the Orioles lost the series to the Red Sox. Boston sent two left-handed starters to the mound.

This is an issue the Orioles have had for a couple of years. It's a trend that spans multiple lineups, hitting coaches, and managers. They've signed "lefty mashers", they've traded for players with lifetime good splits against left-handed pitching, and it just hasn't mattered. Lefties continue to dominate the Orioles.

So far this season, the Orioles have faced six left-handed starters. They're 0-6 in those games. Four of the six lefties they've faced have gone 6-plus innings. Even Cleveland Guardians rookie Parker Messick took a no-hitter into the ninth against the Orioles. After years of the front office and the coaching staff knowing this is a problem area, why does this persist?

The Orioles need to change their approach to left-handed pitching

Every time the Orioles see a lefty, they alter the lineup to get the platoon advantage. Most of the Orioles' best hitters are left-handed, so matching up to get the best lineup has typically meant taking your top bats out of the lineup. On top of making the offense worse, this also usually involves playing players out of position on defense to try to cram one more right-handed bat into the lineup.

In the past, this meant Jorge Mateo in centerfield instead of Cedric Mullins or James McCann at DH instead of Ryan O'Hearn. This year, the Orioles already lost a game because they tried to make third baseman Weston Wilson play left field in his first game ever at Camden Yards.

Platoon advantages exist. Every team considers the platoon advantages when they're game planning. Good teams, however, don't remove their best hitters from the lineup, thereby compromising their defensive alignment just to get one more platoon bat in the lineup.

It's not that the Orioles need to ignore platoon splits, but the way that they twist their lineup and rearrange their defense to account for left-handed pitching is not giving them an advantage.

In the Orioles most recent series against the Red Sox, Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo were two of the team's hottest hitters. Neither of them played in the final two games of the series because the Orioles prioritized getting lefty masher Tyler O'Neill into the lineup. He went 1-for-8 with four strikeouts, lowering his season wRC+ against lefties up to -20.

The Orioles would be better off responding to left-handed starter by putting their nine best hitters in the lineup and seeing what happened.

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