On Sunday the Detroit Tigers finished up a series split with Baltimore, beating the Orioles 5-1. No big deal, right? Both teams have mediocre records (though heading in different directions), so it was just another four-game series split (love the scheduling this year by the way) completed on a Sunday afternoon. But some of you know it was a little more than that (Oriole fans especially). It was Baltimore’s 15th-straight loss on a Sunday. That’s right, their FIFTEENTH straight. And it’s not like this is the 1988 version of the Baltimore Orioles, who finished with a record of 54-107, one of the worst in the modern era. This is a team that, while now in last place in the AL East, has just recently dropped below .500. Hmm…I wonder what’s different about Sundays. I mean sure, it’s the Sabbath, and they usually don’t take batting practice on Sunday, but why do the Orioles perform so poorly (they’d be 47-36 right now if they didn’t have to play on Sundays)?
Baltimore’s last win on a Sunday was April 6 (during the first week of the season), a 3-2 win over Seattle. Before that they had lost 7-of-8 games on Sunday, their only win in that stretch an 8-6 squeaker over Toronto in 12 innings on September 16, 2007…which shows just how close they actually are to having lost 23-of-24 games on Sundays. Baltimore’s opponent this coming Sunday? The Los Angeles Angels and 11-game winner Ervin Santana, in Baltimore.
The subject of Oriole losing streaks got me thinking about their classic streak, the untouchable 0-21 start to the 1988 season. I had never really looked at that horrible run very closely before, though I remember when it was going on and how the O’s were the talk of baseball, and then the talk of sports, and then front page news. If you examine the Orioles’ month of April 1988, it’s interesting to see the 52,000+ that showed up for the season opener against the Brewers at Memorial Stadium on a Monday dwindle to 11,000 at the start of their next homestand the following Tuesday (fair weather fans in April?). But Baltimore couldn’t have been the least bit exciting to watch during April ’88. They only scored two runs in their first four games, and a total of 17 in their first 12 games. The games weren’t really that close — they didn’t lose a one-run game until a stretch of three in losses nine, 10 and 11 (loss 11 was a 1-0 heartbreaker against Cleveland in 11 innings in which Oriole pitcher Mike Morgan threw a nine-inning two-hitter but watched his teammates strand 10 men on base). They only scored more than four runs three times in the 21 losses, which explains a lot, and ace Mike Boddicker tallied five losses in the opening month of the season. Baltimore finally snapped the 21-game losing streak with a 9-0 victory at Chicago against the White Sox (but would lose their next two games, giving them a horrific 1-23 record on May Day.
“O” to be an O’s fan. They haven’t really done anything notable since their World Series Championship in 1983, but at least they have some interesting streaks to show for 25 years of relative futility.
