Slap a stamp on it and mail it in...

After dropping 2 of 3 to the Rockies, with a sweep by the Nationals on the horizon, and with the Diamondbacks, Padres, and Yankees on the upcoming schedule, the Orioles are dead in the water.

The O's are in last place in the AL East, and will probably stay there for the rest of the season.

To tell you the truth, I didn't watch the game last night. I tuned in during the bottom of the 2nd inning, saw that we were losing 2-1, sighed, and turned on NFL Network to see if there was anything noteworthy going on with the Ravens. Yup, it's official...we've lost the season series to the Nationals at home and now have the 2nd worst record in all of baseball. Yes, the Devil Rays and Royals are better than the Orioles.

But I did gather some information about the game and the postgame from the Baltimore Sun, Comcast SportsNet, and my co-workers at 1570 WNST. For those who missed it, which is probably most of you, here's how it went:

The game went 11 innings; the Orioles were losing, battled back to tie it, and lost it in the 11th because of, you guessed it, the bullpen. Finally, the bats came alive again and here comes Chris Ray who decided to turn a baseball game into a walk-a-thon.

Ray gave up a bloop single to Fick, who hit it off the end of the back. That's understandable...chances are Fick got fooled and got lucky. Regardless, Tejada and Payton looked confused as to who was going to try to get the fly ball, and one of them probably could have made the play if they weren't day dreaming out there. That kind of stuff reminds me of looking at little league games when the skinny red-head kid with pale skin and seasonal allergies is out in left field sitting on his keister picking grass during a game. The O's also failed to turn a pretty easy double play, giving the Nats an extra out to work with.

In comes Ryan Langerhans, batting under .200. Instead of powering past this struggling hitter with a fastball after getting him in an 0-2 hole, what does Ray do? FOUR CONSECUTIVE SLIDERS out of the zone...you would think maybe he would get the point after the first two missed. I know I've gotten on Ray's case in the past for throwing too many fastballs, but it's a different story when you're pitching to Vladimir Guerrero. When you're up against a guy who is hitting .155, that's the time you get out your paintbrush and use your 96 mph fastball. Guzman comes up and Ray promptly walks the bases loaded. I guess at this point he's thinking about what he's going to eat at the post game meal, because Felipe Lopez comes up a drives another Chris Ray beach ball down the 1st base line for a 3 RBI triple...good night, Gracie.

After the game, Kevin Millar, one of my favorite Orioles, was the ONLY one walking around the clubhouse trying to keep his teammates spirits up. It was reported that people were sitting around on the couch, joking, laughing, carrying on, being pretty apathetic about the embarrassing display of baseball they have been playing for almost a decade. The lethargic attitude pisses me off more than anything about this club right now, but here are a few other things that will probably cause me to go onto some sort of high blood pressure medication before I turn 30, and they all revolve around how the Orioles players and management have treated the fans and the media. Some of the players should take a lesson from Danys Baez and Chris Ray, who have enough respect for the fans to talk to the media. Baez is especially impressive considering he gets booed like Barry Bonds does in Oakland every time he steps on the field at Camden Yards.

1. When the media is allowed into the locker room after the game, it's like someone flicked the lights on in the kitchen of an East Baltimore row home...the roaches scatter. It seems like it's a race to see who can get out of the clubhouse the fastest. Pretty soon we'll see Erik Bedard hopping onto Eutaw Street trying to pull his pants up with one hand while holding his shoes in the other as he bunny hops away from the media. I bet he wears tighty whities. Apparently some of these players aren't man enough to sack up and talk to the media after a loss, and the front office allows, and probably encourages, that sort of behavior.

2. Only three people from WNST have been GRANTED (as if we owe the Orioles something) press passes for the entire season, and I believe Casey Willett is the only employee whose press pass is for the whole season. The other two employees are sporadically granted daily press passes. This could stem from a number of things, most likely because of Nestor's Free The Birds movement, which I think is a great idea. We, as fans, have to try something, anything, to attempt to make a change.

3. (This story brought to you by Drew Forrester of WNST) Brent Harris, the Comcast SportsNet correspondent who covers the Orioles, was finally "granted" a full-season media credential. 65 games into the season, and the ONLY employee who covers the Orioles for Comcast finally gets a press pass...but that's not the worst part. It was the NATIONALS who gave it to him! Unbelievable...I guess once they stopped televising games, the Almightly Orioles sent out a decree across all the land proclaiming all media outlets who do not create revenue for the team are rendered unimportant...then again, the fans and media who are upset with the team "have no idea what it takes to run a baseball team," are "unimportant" and have "delusions of grandeur" (direct quote from Peter Angelos himself).

Mark this date on your calendars, sports fans: July 30th will be our saving grace...Ravens training camp starts.