Baltimore Orioles: The Disaster In 24 and 29 At-Bats
By TC Zencka
After extended slumps from Trey Mancini and Dwight Smith Jr., the Baltimore Orioles may be fresh out of players they can sell to contenders.
Before Baltimore Orioles outfielder Trey Mancini‘s third-inning double against the Washington Nationals (an end of the bat bleeder down the first baseline), he was mired in an 0-24 slide. Leftfielder Dwight Smith Jr. – at the same time – had extended his streak to 0-29.
The Orioles had gone over a week since getting a hit from either their #2 or #6 hitter.
This, in a season in which Chris Davis made history (62 PA without a hit) for being the anti-Joe DiMaggio, paired with the O’s nearing their worst season in history makes this all the more painful.
Before these slides, Mancini and Smith Jr. were the protagonists of the rarest kind of narrative in Baltimore: comedies.
It’s fair to wonder whether their respective slumps represent the midpoint or the dark hour of their respective season’s narratives because it makes all the difference in forecasting how these stories end.
For now, the Baltimore faithful can only hope they don’t turn into tragedies.