A 21-inning scoreless streak was swept under the rug without much comment Thursday night after the run that ended it. That the streak ended as feebly as the throw from center field on a Pedro Alvarez sacrifice fly doesn't matter when the end result is a well-earned 1-0 win over the New York Yankees.
While alarming, the second streak of 20 innings or more without scoring for these Orioles in less than two weeks is only a real issue if the underlying performance doesn't support run scoring. With the Orioles, there are plenty of little reasons why it seems like a team that gets more than enough chances can go so long without scoring.
Let's get the fact that they're overly reliant on home runs again out of the way. They entered Thursday among the league leaders with 52.2 percent of their runs off home runs, but they've been that way for years.
Everything else they do indicates they should score a bit more, though. They're getting on base more than last year, ranking eighth in baseball as a team with a .326 on-base percentage after finishing last year 24th in that category at .307. It's not as simple as getting base runners, but that's the key to scoring runs without home runs, and the Orioles are 19 points better at that so far. They've been among the league leaders in runs the past few years with a team OBP around .311.
However, they're just below league-average with 27 percent of their base runners ultimately scoring runs. Just six teams have fewer this season, and the similarly frustrating 2015 Orioles had a 30 percent rate last year.
And despite having more base runners than last year, they have the third-fewest opportunities with runners in scoring position (73). So while only three teams are better than their .292 average with a runner on second, third, or both, the result is just 73 runs with runners in scoring position, 23rd best in the league.
They're still just 18th in runs scored, with 114 in 27 games. Measured by runs per game, the Orioles' 4.22 is right around the league average. As we established while trying to find out why people who made baseball forecasts thought the Orioles would not be good this year, baseball is all about sequencing events. It seems the Orioles' events aren't being sequenced right, and they're not helping their own cause.
There are plenty of factors contributing to that. Consider that the Orioles, through 27 games, are the only team in the majors without a sacrifice bunt and are tied for 21st in baseball in sacrifice flies with five. Their 26 double plays are the fourth most in baseball, cutting down potential rallies once a game, on average. Baseball Reference classifies 15 percent of their outs as "productive outs," meaning they drove in runs with the second out of the inning or advanced a runner with no outs. That's the lowest rate in baseball.
They're also 4-for-7 on stolen-base attempts this season, giving them the fewest opportunities and successful steals in all of baseball. There's not a lack of aggression, however. The Orioles have made 13 outs trying to take extra bases, seventh most in baseball. They're successful taking extra bases 40 percent of the time, which is essentially league average.
One last stat: The Orioles have had a runner on third base with less than two outs 38 times and only scored that man 15 times. Only the Tampa Bay Rays have been successful at that less often than the Orioles' 39 percent.
We know these aren't the small-ball Orioles. They'll likely be atop the major league lead in home runs again this season, and the last time anyone mentioned manufacturing runs to manager Buck Showalter, it was more than two weeks ago and he dismissed it as "wee ball." That was the end of that.
So until the home runs start coming again — and they probably will in bunches — know that more of the traits of this team indicate that you're going to be frustrated more than anyone wants.