It’s October 2nd and this could be the last day of the year that there is an Orioles game. I would be happy if that weren’t true. It’s slightly more fun than if the O’s had been bad and their last game had been September 29th, but only slightly, and it’s hard to gauge the margin now that the O’s lost a disappointing first game of the series and We all need to convince ourselves that the offense will wake up in time to prevent another hasty postseason exit.

One thing that will likely be important if the Orioles want to delay the season for at least another day is that their stars emerge. In Game 1, the quartet of All-Star hitters Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Anthony Santander and Adleyrutschman combined to go 1-15, with one walk. Those were four of the top five hitters in the lineup and they didn’t do much. It’s a tough way to win.

Guess what? They are four of the top five hitters in the lineup again! That’s pretty much the only choice the Orioles have. Put your best players at the top and hope they advance. The only one I agree has more evidence to try something different isrutschman, as he’s been struggling for about three months and should probably be further down the lineup than he is. But the O’s, who insist he is not injured in any way, are sticking with him in the middle of the order.

We all know it was a struggle for the Orioles in September, and it was always going to be hard to expect that to suddenly change once the postseason began. The Royals also struggled in September, even worse than the O’s. Kansas City can’t even expect a turnaround in the final week of the regular season. Their offense has been brutal all month. Yesterday was also brutal, except for a single Witt punch. So here we are.

It would be nice if the Orioles could give us something to be happy about for a while instead of things immediately descending into fear and resignation.

Orioles lineup

1. Gunnar Henderson – SS
2. Jordan Westburg – 2B
3. Anthony Santander – RF
4. Colton Cowser – LF
5. Adleyrutschman – C
6. Ryan O’Hearn – DH
7. Ryan Mountcastle – 1B
8. Cedric Mullins – CF
9. Ramon Urias – 3B

It would be very nice if the Orioles could somehow get Zach Eflin to repeat or come close to Corbin Burnes’ results in Game 1. That should have been enough to win the Orioles yesterday, and it should have been enough to win today. Eflin had a 2.60 ERA in nine starts with the O’s. These are great results. The Royals’ offense is also down.

Royals lineup

1. Michael Massey – 2B
2. Bobby Witt Jr. – SS
3. Vinnie Pasquantino – DH
4. Salvador Perez – C
5. Yuli Gurriel – 1B
6. MJ Melendez – LF
7. Hunter Renfroe – RF
8. Kyle Isbel – CF
9. Maikel Garcia – 3B

The Orioles lineup should be better than this lineup. It doesn’t matter whether a good pitcher plays for the other team or not. Yesterday’s Cole Ragans was a good pitcher, and the same goes for today’s Seth Lugo. The bottom line is that the O’s have to find a way to do something, and if they can’t do that, then it’s a quick end to another disappointing October experience for the team and for us.