Orioles show typical lack of edge after Mariners' Matt Brash situation

Last night, after falling behind early to the Seattle Mariners, the Baltimore Orioles had a nice little rally going to start the seventh inning. With two runners in scoring position and the top of the order coming up, the Mariners turned to one of their most trusted relievers, Matt Brash, to get out of the jam. Brash came in wildly, throwing up and in on Taylor Ward and Pete Alonso, and provided the Orioles with an opportunity to get fired up and show some spirit. True to form, over the last few years, the Orioles responded by doing nothing.

Based on the situation and how Brash's command looked in general, it was clear that he wasn't out there head-hunting, but throwing two balls near the heads of the Orioles best hitters and hitting someone with a 98 mph fastball merits some sort of response regardless of intent. After each of the three way-too-up-and-in pitches was thrown, you could see some members of the Orioles bench reacting with a hard stare or their hands in the air, but nobody did anything that even remotely resembled a harsh rebuke of the dangerous play. Brash never even turned his head towards the Orioles dugout and ultimately calmed down enough to finish off the inning without allowing a run to score.

The Orioles have earned a reputation as one of the softest teams in baseball

Having a level-headed team can be a good thing. You certainly don't want your team having such thin skin that they have weekly brawls, ejections, and suspensions over every perceived slight. However, the Orioles are too far on the other side of the spectrum, where they let their opponents get away with everything. Over the last few years, they have earned a reputation as a soft team.

This is not something new this season. One of the last messages that Brandon Hyde imparted on the Orioles before being fired last year was that the league thought they were soft. This has only become more true as the Orioles have steadily allowed their veterans who survived the rebuild years to walk in favor of younger and cheaper players.

These young players are "nice"; they get along with each other and most of their opponents, which again is fine, there's no need to create hatred for the sake of it, but you need to have an edge when another team is crossing the line, and this team simply has no edge to it.

Look at the bench-clearing incidents from last season. They had one against the Yankees in defense of Heston Kjerstad and one against the White Sox in defense of Coby Mayo. Both of those incidents were incredibly limp. There was no fire, there was no passion; they were merely going through the motions.

In 2024, they had a real benches-clearing incident when Kjerstad got hit in the head by a Clay Holmes fastball. Go and look at the video from that fight and see who was at the front, pushing and shoving. The video clearly shows Ryan O'Hearn, Austin Hays, Anthony Santander, and Cedric Mullins on the front lines with Hyde , Tony Mansolino, and Fredi Gonzalez. It also shows Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser, and Jordan Westburg in the back, not really involved in the skirmish. Those front-line guys are gone now, and the Orioles don't have anyone who wants to fight.

This does not go unnoticed around the league. Teams know they can throw up and in on the Orioles, and nothing is going to happen. They can run headlong into Samuel Basallo at the plate like it's 1995 and the Orioles aren't going to do anything except rush Basallo off the field so that he doesn't get mad. Umpires know it too. They can screw over the Orioles all they want, and they know the response will be short-lived and lackluster.

This hasn't been helped by the hiring of Albernaz, who appears to be as anti-confrontation as any manager to put on an Orioles uniform this century. There have been ample opportunities for Albernaz to show some fight and get the team fired up with a good ejection, something veteran managers know to do every so often. Instead, every time the Orioles get blatantly screwed, he's out there calmly talking to the umpires and shaking his head in disbelief before heading back to the dugout.

The Orioles are going to continue to be the victims of cheap shots, "accidental", hit-by-pitches, and bad umpiring until they stick up for themselves, and they need to do it soon.

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