Having A Plan and Sticking With It...

The Rays continued their march to the playoffs by defeating the Orioles, 4-2, last night in a 3/4 empty Camden Yards. After being a witness to history this weekend, the Birds of Baltimore continued their woeful ways with their sixth loss in a row.

Honestly, I watched a little of the game yesterday to catch David Price's debut, and he looked solid while having the jitters; meanwhile, Brian Bass looked good and threw a little more than four no-hit innings, then hit the wall -- literally. It looked like he got tired, and Trembley had to pull him out the game.

Then it got worse, with errors galore, stupid base running mistakes, a bad bullpen and not making the most of their opportunities.

Geez, sort of reminds me of the Tampa Bay Rays -- or the Devil Rays, as they were once known as -- circa 2008.

The Orioles we see out on the field reminded me of the god-awful Rays of old -- a team staked with veterans past their prime and kids who had little idea what they were doing. For that region and their fan base, it's been a long painful road, but after an ownership change, highly successful drafts and an eradication of a losing philosophy, they have seen the promised land.

Simply, the Birds may have to live with losing for a good while before the ride turns. It's not to say that Peter Angelos will sell the team -- I don't see that happening -- but, there has to be change in the thinking of the team. It looks like the Orioles are making utterly stupid mistakes on the field, and when all was said and done, Trembley let them have it in his post game press conference.

"The games that you should win, we should win," said Trembley, whose team has three losing streaks of five games or more during the past four weeks and is 5-23 during that span. "I don't care what time of the year it is, I don't care what game it is. You get an opportunity to win the game, do enough right things to win it. And there weren't enough things done right to win the game. This is the big leagues."

The play the Orioles have shown on the field during the last month plus is what plagued Tampa Bay for nearly a decade, and until the they start to play like the games mean something along with master basic fundamentals, this organization is going nowhere.

There's a lot of hope with Baltimore with guys like Markakis, Jones, Johnson, Guthrie and up-and-comers like Wieters, but the guys who are in the lineup day in and day out have to perform, no matter what time of year it is.

We have a guy in Andy MacPhail, who has some experience in team building and as fans, we have no choice but to trust him.

At this point, I just say let's see his plan develop and hope for the best. I hoped that we'd see .500 and move from there; however, after the latest swoon, this organization has more deals to make and a larger job to do in order to see the promised land.