BOSTON _ A question that for most of this year has been facetious becomes less and less so as the date in question draws near: How are the Orioles going to get to the end of this season?
After Monday night's 6-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park _ during which their only remaining starter from the Opening Day rotation, Dylan Bundy, threw 90 pitches in three laborious innings and further stretched a pitching staff that despite roster expansion can barely cover the required innings on a given day _ all that's assured is that these last six games will not be comfortable ones.
Bundy could have provided a small consolation had he delivered the game to the bullpen deeper into the game. But after striking out two in a 25-pitch first inning, he allowed four runs on five hits _ including a home run by American League Most Valuable Player candidate Mookie Betts _ in the second inning. A pair of two-out walks in a scoreless third inning extended his pitch count to the point that the Orioles (45-111) brought Donnie Hart in for the fourth.
Hart allowed four singles and a walk to the first five batters he faced, with two scoring, and provided only one inning before Sean Gilmartin was assigned the rest of the game. He allowed one hit in four shutout innings.
Gilmartin was plucked from consideration to start either Tuesday night's or Wednesday night's game, the former open as a consequence of the season-ending hamstring injury for Luis Ortiz and the latter open because Yefry Ramirez, brought back into the rotation only recently, needs a few extra days for a cut on his hand to heal.
They have 19 pitchers on the active roster; seven of them _ Alex Cobb (finger), Andrew Cashner (knee), Miguel Castro (knee), Josh Rogers (shut down), Evan Phillips (shut down), Ortiz and Ramirez _ are dealing with injuries or otherwise unavailable. That gives them the numbers of a pre-roster expansion pitching staff with a minor league call-up quality to it. September baseball is a manager's nightmare, but this is a level unto itself.
Even as he stood huddled in the visiting team's dugout at Fenway Park before Monday's game, inhaling the fumes from an industrial heater brought out to combat September's first cold snap, Showalter acknowledged that the Orioles' pitching situation was so tenuous that he couldn't count on a long outing from Bundy.
Considering that he was their Opening Day starter and appeared to have his latest malaise behind him with back-to-back quality starts, Showalter wouldn't have been faulted for counting on Dylan for that.
Instead, Bundy (8-16) left with a 5.49 ERA and likely one start remaining _ against the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros _ with a chance to end his season on a good note. He's already reached the meaningful 30-start milestone, but hasn't finished terribly strong _ he's allowed a league-high 39 home runs.
On a night when the Orioles managed six singles _ three by third baseman Renato Nunez _ and scored only on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Adam Jones, it wasn't enough to prevent Boston from winning for the franchise-record 106th time.
