Entering Sunday, the Orioles had gone 75-179 over their last two seasons. That sad stretch had included pretty much every kind of loss you could draw up. Routs, shutouts, blown leads, extra-inning heartbreakers. You name it.
There was one kind of defeat, though, that hadn’t been pulled off in that time. The Orioles, for all their woes, hadn’t been no-hit. And with one inning to go on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays, they were staring down the barrel of that exact shame - and a perfect game, to boot.
Just in time, however, the Orioles escaped that narrative.