Baltimore Orioles: looking back at the 0-21 start to 1988
On opening day, every team in the league is in first place, except the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who were in the division’s basement before a pitch was thrown.
Some teams are just bad and destined to lose over one hundred games a year. Other teams catch a few bad breaks, get bitten by the injury bug, and suffer through stretches of poor play, en route to one hundred-plus loss. The 1988 Baltimore Orioles dug themselves an insurmountable hole to begin the season and easily reached the one-hundred loss plateau.
After guiding the 1987 Baltimore Orioles to a 67-95 record, skipper Cal Ripkin Sr. was back at the helm in ’88. At least for the first six games, all of which were losses. Hall of Fame Frank Robinson slid into the role of manager and oversaw the team as they lost their next 15 games, to begin the year 0-21.
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Twenty-one straight losses are quite a feat, even more impressive starting the season off on such a losing roll. The Orioles sat sixteen games out of first place by the time they won their first game.
At no point during the season were the Orioles in a place in the division other than last. They would go on to post a major league-worst record of 54-107.
In what area can we point the finger to why the team got off to a winless start of twenty-one games.
The Hitting
The Baltimore Orioles bats were a big part of the reason the team couldn’t get off the snide early. They scored two runs in the first four games and were shut out or scored one run in ten of their first twenty-one.
The team boasted the Ripken brothers, Eddie Murray, and Fred Lynn, what could go wrong? A combination of not getting hits and not taking walks is what went wrong.
The Orioles didn’t get on base, they didn’t hit, and they definitely were not hitting for power. These were the main reasons behind not being able to score any runs.
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After their sixteenth game of the year (a 13-1 loss to Kansas City) the top four Orioles in the lineup were hitting .149, .190, .175, and .125. Balls were not finding the holes and the hitters just were not getting on base. Looking at the supposed leadership of the lineup, Billy and Cal were hitting below the Mendoza Line and Murray and Lynn were barely over it.
The starting catcher was hitting .196 and the platoon left fielders Ken Gerhart (.118) and Jim Traber (.091) were far worse.
In the first twenty-one losses, the Orioles cycled through six lead-off hitters, who hit a combined .192. The team hit just ten home runs during that span. The lack of table setting and lack of power resulted in little run support for the pitchers.