The Boston Red Sox managed to accomplish something that few others have this season. They lost to the Baltimore Orioles despite the best efforts of the O’s to give the game back to the Sox. It took a pair of three-run innings to get the win in extra innings, but the Sox put two on the board in their half of the tenth to fall a run short. And now for the first time in 2010, the Orioles will be carrying a winning streak for more than 24 hours as they have an off-day Monday before traveling to Yankee Stadium.

Baltimore’s struggles can be directly attributed to the pitching. Everybody not named Brian Matusz had precisely zero wins attributed to them before Sunday’s victory. Despite giving up two runs on five hits in two innings, Jim Johnson improved his record to 1-1 on the season. Matusz himself is 2-0 in four starts, but even he has a mediocre ERA at 4.38. He almost claimed a third win, but a late homer by Marco Scutaro of the Red Sox ruined that planned party. Five of their bullpen pitchers have an ERA above six, which is more than double where you want that to be.
We’re still in April, but some who said that the O’s will certainly finish above the Toronto Blue Jays this year for the first time. They said the Jays could lose upwards of 100 games after losing Roy Halladay to the Phillies, but it’s Baltimore who are already on pace to lose 136 this season. The Jays have been above .500 since their third game. Under ideal outcomes, it’s still going to take Baltimore over a week to catch Toronto in the standings.

Baltimore has already had losing streaks of five and nine games, and they’re just 19 games into their season. The O’s have to straighten the ship quickly, or their season will be over a lot sooner than most thought it would be. The joke that the AL East is a three-team division doesn’t need Baltimore’s help making that assessment more literal. Pennant races are almost non-existent as it is, and Baltimore’s crappy April isn’t making things any more difficult for everybody else.