The 2019 Baltimore Orioles are exceptionally bad. After all, you don’t get be nearly 40 games back in the standings by putting forth quality and competitive efforts.
But on Sunday, this very bad Baltimore Orioles season reached comedic levels of embarrassing. At least for a few minutes.
With Michael Brantley batting in the ninth inning of the Astros’ game in Baltimore, Houston was threatening a rally against Mychal Givens with two on and nobody out in the inning.
And that lead was quickly given up when Brantley lined a base hit down the right-field line. But it got worse: Something weird happened in the right-field corner to Anthony Santander, and Brantley came all the way around to score.
That first broadcast angle wasn’t ideal because it didn’t show what happened with Santander. And trust me — Santander would probably prefer that it stayed like that because replays showed what unfolded and, oh man, it was bad.
Santander, a professional baseball player, threw a baseball sideways into the wall. It doesn’t get more embarrassing than that, but astonishingly, the Orioles were able to rally back from that blunder.
Rio Ruiz hit a walk-off, two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The Orioles won, 8-7.
