Orioles Unfortunate Fate May Be Sealed After Beltway Series Sweep

After three straight losses to the Nationals in MLB's inaugural "Rivalry Weekend", the Orioles have trapped themselves in the bottom of the standings.

Only three teams (Rockies, Pirates, White Sox) have as many or less wins than the 15-30 O's, who now sit 6.5 games behind the Blue Jays for fourth place in the AL East and 11.5 behind the Yankees. Their six-game losing streak is also the longest in baseball.

The Nationals stamped the series sweep with a 10-4 win on Sunday afternoon with five home runs. Zach Eflin allowed four in the first two innings alone, finishing out his outing with eight earned runs and 10 hits. He entered his start allowing only eight earned runs in four previous outings.

Baltimore has struggled immensely through injuries and inconsistency, most recently losing Tyler O'Neill to the injured list for the second time in the last month. The O's only have six qualified hitters, with three of them having a sub-.250 batting average: Ryan Mountcastle (.232), Cedric Mullins (.227), and Adley Rutschman (.209). Ryan O'Hearn is the only batter hitting over .300 and only one player, Mullins, has over 20 RBI.

Jackson Holliday has been outstanding as of late, but the team's total dysfunction over their first 45 games is far out of the hands of one bat or arm.