It's getting harder and harder these days to decipher what statistics are the most embarrassing, what numbers best exhibit how awful the 2010 Orioles have played.
There are so many to choose from, but here is one that is going to be very tough to beat. With their 8-2 loss to Toronto on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, the Orioles are now 20 1/2 games behind the Blue Jays for fourth place in the American League East. Only two other teams in baseball -- the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Arizona Diamondbacks -- entered Tuesday more than 20 games out of first place.
"That sounds awful," Orioles center fielder Adam Jones said. "It's just how our season has been. We're playing the game hard. It's just not happening our way."
Losing for the fourth straight time, the 10th time in 12 games since the All-Star break and the 11th consecutive time to the Blue Jays, the Orioles hit the 100-game mark with a 31-69 record. They are pace to finish with a 50-112 mark, five more losses than any other Orioles team. The 1988 squad, the much-maligned group that started 0-21, went 54-107.
It stands to reason that things will improve, however slightly, at some point, even if it is for a short period of time. After all, even the worst teams in the major leagues historically have one or two decent stretches. It's hard to imagine, however, these Orioles putting anything positive together over the last 62 games with the way the starting pitching continues to implode.
On Tuesday night, it was Kevin Millwood's turn to put his team into a huge hole as the Blue Jays had a 3-0 lead before the Orioles starter had gotten an out and a 6-0 advantage by the fourth inning in a game that looked like so many others between the two teams this season. In their 11 victories over the Orioles, their most over one team to start a season, the Blue Jays (52-49) have outscored the AL East cellar dwellers 63-23. They've out-hit them 112-86, including a 55-18 advantage in extra-base hits.
They've also hit 23 homers to the Orioles' four, with Jose Bautista's three-run blast in the first inning the big blow Tuesday night. It was the 10th time in his past 11 starts that Millwood has given up at least two runs in the first inning, and he has allowed 31 first-inning runs during that span.
Bautista, a former Oriole, then hit a two-run shot in the eighth inning off Alfredo Simon, giving him three in the past two games. Six of his major league-leading 30 homers have come against the Orioles. He finished 4-for-4 with five RBIs and a walk as the Orioles continue to struggle to get anybody out.
In their past three games, their pitchers have allowed 27 runs, 34 hits and 17 extra-base hits.
"It's unbelievable," Orioles interim manager Juan Samuel said. "I haven't seen anything like this. You hope that things will play out differently. We're trying everything possible to do, and the outcome is the same. We just have to right this. Hopefully tomorrow, things will start turning around."
Samuel expressed hope before the game that Millwood and Jeremy Guthrie, the starter in Wednesday's series finale, would be able to get deep into the game and rest a tired bullpen.
"Kevin is one of those guys that will find a way," Samuel said before the game. "They know what our needs are, and they will find a way to take us deep."
Millwood lasted just 5 1/3 innings, becoming the eighth starter since the All-Star break to fail to get through six. Samuel might have taken that, however, if asked after the third inning, when Millwood's pitch count was already at 65.
"No matter what's going on, I always want to go deep into the ballgame," Millwood said. "It's just not happening. I'm not making the right adjustments. I'm not pitching well. I don't know what else to say."
Michael Gonzalez followed him and provided one of the Orioles' only highlights by throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings and reaching 94 mph on the stadium radar gun.
Overall, Millwood allowed six runs (five earned) on 10 hits and four walks while striking out five in falling to 2-10 with a 5.96 ERA. Considered a solid trade chip at one point, Millwood has just one quality start in his past 10 outings and has surrendered five earned runs in each of his past four starts.
"I've tried everything," Millwood said. "It's definitely not a fatigue thing. I'm definitely not tired. I've tired a lot of mechanical things. I guess if I knew what it was, I'd fix it."
He would have had to have been very good Tuesday night to match Ricky Romero (8-7), who continued his dominance over the Orioles, improving to 3-0 with a 1.14 ERA against them this season. Through four innings, Romero allowed just one hit -- a one-out double to Jones in the second -- and needed only 38 pitches to get the first 12 outs.
The Orioles had something going in the fifth with men on first and second and one out, but Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar ranged up the middle to field Jake Fox's grounder and then made a nifty flip behind his back to get the out at second.
In the sixth, the Orioles had two men on when Romero struck out Luke Scott and Jones to end the inning. They spoiled his shutout bid in the eighth when Nick Markakis followed back-to-back singles by Julio Lugo and Miguel Tejada with an RBI double and Scott hit a sacrifice fly for the Orioles' second run.
But at that point, it was little more than box score fodder with the Orioles well on their way to another loss in a season that grows more embarrassing by the day.