The sparse crowd that showed up at Oriole Park on Wednesday night did not set any dubious records, but it did leave open an obvious question:
Their team is off to its worst start in years and the players have been dropping like fly balls in the left-field corner. Infielder Tim Beckham, who moved to second base to fill in when Jonathan Schoop went on the disabled list, joined him on the disabled list Wednesday and is expected to be out of action for more than six weeks.
The Orioles entered the game against the Tampa Bay Rays with nine losses in their previous 10 games and trailing the first-place Boston Red Sox by 11½ games in the American League East.