*throws hands in air*
It’s hard to know what to say at this point. Officially 50 losses.
The 2025 season was really encapsulated by the bottom of the seventh.
Sean Murphy, having a bounceback season, started the inning off by launching a ball to right-center. It caromed off the top of the ball in a way that it’s somewhat unclear if it hit something behind the wall or just the top of the wall. They do a review, and of course, it’s just a double as it hit off the top of the wall. Down two runs, the optimist would tell you that the Atlanta Braves were now threatening. But iykyk, the Baltimore Orioles had Atlanta just where they wanted.
Trevor Rogers, who threw 6.2 innings of 6 K/2 BB ball, got Ozzie Albies to fly out to right, which moved Murphy to third. Productive out, right? Drake Baldwin came up, and as you might imagine, he popped the ball straight up to the catcher in foul territory for out number two. With the right- handed Eli White coming to the plate, the Orioles have a manager with a pulse, so he brought in Yennier Cano to force Atlanta to pinch hit with Michael Harris, which well … anyway. Harris grounded out weakly to short, and the inning ended with the Braves still scoreless.
Atlanta only got 5 hitters to the plate in twice (we’ll get to the other in a sec) in this one as Rogers kept them tamed, so you know they never threatened outside of this. Murphy was the only Braves hitter to even reach third.
Grant Holmes was pretty good and criminally supported, yet again. He wasn’t 100% sharp, striking out 5 and walking 3 in his 6 innings of work, but the only damage came off of a Jackson Holliday home run in the third. Dylan Lee, Pierce Johnson (who had to get out of a bases loaded jam in the 8th), and Raisel Iglesias combined for 3 innings of scoreless work to follow him up. If you don’t score any runs, it just doesn’t matter.
I will stand somewhat corrected in that they did get one run. Murphy came back up in the ninth, and the wall was a bit more friendly in straightaway center. The ball bounced over the wall this time, and Atlanta had it’s lone run for the game. Albies hit a ball down the line for a somehow-but-yeah-that-makes-sense single instead of a double. Baldwin struck out, and Harris (again) grounded out to end the game.
Atlanta heads to Sacramento (full disclosure, I typed Oakland originally), where their park is playing more hitter-friendly than Coors Fields, so maybe they’ll score some runs there.