Thanks to Red Sox, the Orioles could be historically horrible

The Orioles will avoid finishing in their division any more than any team in baseball history, so they are absolutely right for them. However, Baltimore still has another hurdle to overcome before the end of 2018, and this is their attempt to avoid being one of three expanding teams to win less than 50 games. Only the Mets of 1962 (40-120) and the Tigers of 2003 (43-119) share this distinction now, but the O (46-112) could be at their side unless they win their last four games.

There are several reasons why they only have four games to go, all against the Astros, the defending World Series champions who have already won the AL West and won 100 matches for the second year in a row. The most important reason they are here is the Red Sox. Baltimore may have beaten Boston, 10-3, Wednesday night, but it was only his third win of the season against the Red Sox … in 19 attempts. The first game of the day on Wednesday, in which Boston won 19-3, is much more representative of how their interactions took place in 2018. And that's why the Orioles should be historically awful instead of old team.

The Red Sox were 16-3 against the Orioles this summer. It was not just luck or tight calls or something: either Boston beat Baltimore 127-66 in those 19 games, a difference of 61 points. The Red Sox on average 6.7 points per game against the Orioles, while allowing an average of only 3.5 points: the average points scored / allowed per game is 4.5 in 2018, so Boston has managed to control the keystrokes while comparing how the rest of the league took care of their business.

There is also that of Boston Globe Alex Speier, who appeared on Twitter after Rafael Devers' second homer Wednesday:

Now, how badly the O's have been beaten by the Red Sox in every defeat does not matter, except that it was demoralizing and incessant. What stands out and has real consequences for the Orioles is the frequency with which the Red Sox beat them, and how they distinguished themselves from other Eastern countries against Baltimore in 2018.

The Yankees, who have a chance to win 100 games themselves, went from 7 to 12 against the Orioles, beating 114-80, by 34 points. The Rays, who missed a wild card, may have defeated Baltimore quite often: they won the playoffs 11-8, although they were beaten by the Os in three innings, 112-109. If the Rays had knocked down the Orioles to the same level as the Red Sox this summer, we would still be talking about the AL wild card race before the last weekend of the season.

Curiously, the fourth place of the Blue Jays is the only AL East team that has been close to the Orioles dominance that the Red Sox have won in terms of wins and losses, with 14 wins out of 19. Seeding or luck in playoffs, their season is much easier to forget and less embarrassing because of the way they handled the affairs with the worst team in the league.

If the Red Sox had "only" taken 11 or 12 of the Orioles like the Rays and the Yankees, respectively, the Orioles would already have at least 50 wins in 2018. They could be swept by the Astros – a team of 0 -3 passing By the way, by the way – and even if it would be awful for the moment, he would not be inscribed in the all-time rankings of the ugly in the modern game. Because the Red Sox have won 84% of the matches against the Orioles this season, they have managed to make this series of finals against the meaningless Yankees in the AL East standings, while condemning the Orioles to history books. Or baseball reference searches. Regardless of

So, these last four games may seem meaningless for a team that has already blocked the first pick in the 2019 draft, for a team that played for months as if it was just finishing the time. However, they do not make sense: like the Tigers of 2003, who rallied at the end of the year to avoid losing the MLB record, the Orioles have the opportunity to be forgotten at home. instead of being terribly bad. To wonder if the Tigers can do it is another question, but hey: Baltimore defeated the team that most tortured them by seven points in the last showdown, after losing them by 16 points a few hours earlier. Baseball is weird like that, and the Orioles could use some of that quirk on their side for once.