Woebegotten

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 6, 2013- Let us hope that the Orioles have hit rock bottom.  Five games into a critical pre-All Star Game road trip, the Orioles are stuck on one win.  After losing last night in just about the worst way imaginable - they took a narrow lead early and hung on for dear life until the bottom of the ninth.  There, in Yankee Stadium, usually dependable close Jim Johnson blew up.  Two Yankee runs turned a game-long lead into a terrible defeat.  And then today they came and grabbed another two-run lead on Chris Davis' 33rd home run.  They got another couple of runs but couldn't hold on, again.  This time, by the ninth, they were behind, 5-4. They stayed behind.  And all of this after losing two our of three to the last place White Sox.  In Chicago, in the rubber game, Tommy Hunter surrendered ninth inning walk-off homer to Adam Dunn.  Buck Showalter doesn't sound concerned.  But the Orioles now trail the Red Sox by six full games.  They are in third place.  And what's worse, their advantage over fourth place Tampa is exactly one-half game. And then there is this: if the season ended today, the Orioles would not be in the playoffs.  Tomorrow they will have a chance to lose the entire series to the Yanks.