WASHINGTON – The team that won 101 games two years ago and backed it up with another playoff berth last year is now lucky if it can win a three-game series.
A young core whose burgeoning talent was only exceeded by how much fun it looked like they were having between the white lines has more often looked dazed and desultory, usually undone by the worst rotation in the major leagues and sometimes by the enduring cruelty of the game.
Simply, these Baltimore Orioles have fallen into a hole nobody saw coming – and must learn to dig out of one far sooner in their careers than they expected.