No Moral Victories in Baseball, But…

Look, I don’t make excuses for this team. This season has had absurd stretches of losing in the most frustrating ways. Sometimes, it’s the pitching imploding in the early innings. Other times, it’s the offense going completely silent. This team is a game over .500 in late July, and is barely hanging on to its playoff aspirations.

All of this made tonight’s loss that much more painful. The Orioles can’t afford to lose any more ground in the AL East, if they hope to repeat as Champions, and the Wild Card field is so crowded, that they have to start stringing wins together, if the Birds are going to separate themselves from the pack. With about 60 games left, they all matter. And this loss sucks.

But tonight was a fun baseball game. Yes, I’m disappointed they lost. But watching the Orioles come back from a lead that was seven runs TWICE during the ballgame was enjoyable. OK, maybe not in the “watching Miguel Gonzalez and Bud Norris pitch” department, but outside of that, it was delightful.

This game had a lot to offer: home runs from Jones and Davis (who added another pair of RBIs, later), clutch runs from Wieters and Machado. The Orioles didn’t simply roll over – they cut into the lead, and kept plugging away. The Orioles brought the tying, then winning run to the plate in the 9th inning.

Tommy Hunter and Darren O’Day were lights out, and when O’Day delivered a scoreless 9th, striking out two Tigers, you could feel the momentum swinging the Orioles’ way. This game had “magic” written all over it.

Of course, they came up short.

But this was a fun ballgame. The difference between the Dark Period and now is that we don’t have to make excuses for the losing. We don’t have to tell ourselves it’s OK because they “tried hard.” We expect wins. But even when we don’t get them, we need to learn to enjoy baseball for what it is.

It’s the kind of game that can lead this blogger, whose team gave up nine runs in a loss, to say that it is the best damn game in the world.

Go get ’em tomorrow Orioles. We’ll be watching, and we’ll be behind you.