Yankees' embarrassing series vs Orioles has Baltimore fans chirping way too early

The Baltimore Orioles stuck it to the New York Yankees. There's no way around it. And they're dealing with some injury troubles of their own, so that potential argument for New York holds little weight. Though we will say, Alex Verdugo, the team's hottest hitter at the time, missed three out of four games in Baltimore for the last series. This time around Aaron Judge missed 1.5 games after getting hit by a pitch.

That doesn't excuse the Yankees from playing ugly baseball that lacked fundamentals. That doesn't excuse the Yankees from dropping the rubber match by a score of 17-5.

Sometimes this stuff happens. It's a long season. When you play in 162 games, there are bound to be a number of inexplicable disasters.

But how many more times can the Yankees have those trainwrecks occur against division rivals? Against teams who can very easily gain a mental edge as a result of a lackluster showing? The Yankees have lost back-to-back series for the first time in 2024 and did it against the Red Sox and Orioles in agonizing fashion. The timing couldn't be worse.

And now we have to listen to this as if the Orioles are all of a sudden an MLB powerhouse like the Houston Astros have been for the last decade?

Seriously, who are these people and where are they coming from? There were 12 Orioles fans between 2015-2022. Now you can't avoid them. You would think this team has been walking all over the Yankees since the day the franchise was founded.

How about a history lesson? The Orioles have six playoff appearances since 1996 (actually, since 1984). The Yankees have five World Series titles since 1996. The Orioles have finished fourth or fifth in the division 19 times over that same span. The Yankees have 15 division titles over that same span (and haven't finished last once).

The Orioles' tank job lasted from 2017-2022, and so far it's netted them one division title and an early playoff exit. They've proven nothing outside of being regular season warriors for 1.5 years now. But yeah, sure, whatever you say guy.

This is a combination of Orioles fans being laughably delusional and the Yankees' insufferable play giving them the opportunity to do so. Do the O's deserve to celebrate after pounding us into the dirt and capitalizing on our errors? Absolutely. But where did this come from? They're still in second place in the AL East behind the Yankees!

Demonstrably better because they're ... 5-2 against them through June 20? There are still six games left in the season series! How in the world can you confidently believe the Orioles will be 9-4 (or better) when all is said and done?

If that ends up being the case, then the Orioles better hope it made the difference in the AL East race. Because for as underwhelming as the Yankees have been since 2010, they've still acomplished more than the Orioles have since 1975.

Just do us a favor and don't let this happen again. The Yankees are a better team than this, and Orioles fans need to be humbled if they think this behavior is becoming of a championship-caliber organization.