Scoreboard-Watching Not for Birds These Days

The scoreboard is a dark cloud that never goes away, following the Baltimore Orioles from city to city to city, bringing a rain of numbers that darken even their happiest days.

The scoreboard is as haunting as a misty bog at midnight, as depressing as a girlfriend who just wants to be friends, as intimidating as a personal letter from the IRS.

The scoreboard brings only bad news. It brought only bad news in Cleveland and Chicago last week. It brought only bad news at Memorial Stadium earlier this week. It brought only bad news at Arlington Stadium Thursday night.

Discouraging dispatches from foreign ports. Every night. Always. As the pennant race in American League East moves into the final weeks, the scoreboard has become the enemy, the bane of the Orioles’ existence.

No matter where they are playing, if they are winning or losing or tied, there is a scoreboard literally looming over their shoulders, beaming down on them from beyond the outfield fences, telling them the story of the Toronto Blue Jays, reminding them that they have no choice, that they have to win or they can begin making vacation plans for early October.

It is as simple as that. There is never a change in the message the scoreboard delivers. The Orioles have to win. Every night. Every game. Because the Blue Jays are always ahead. Because the Blue Jays always win.

How dreadful it must be to chase them. It does not matter if they are at home or on the road, if they pitch an old man or a kid, if they score 12 runs or two or even one. They have become that baseball rarity: a team that does not lose.

To the Orioles, it must seem the Blue Jays haven’t lost since June, haven’t been behind since July. They jump ahead early every night. The score never seems to be particularly close. There is never any suspense. There is just the plain, painful truth, illuminated night after night on the scoreboard.

Jays win.

Again.

The Orioles insist it isn’t sapping them of their will, but you have to wonder. Never is heard an encouraging word. Never is there even the smallest crack through which to crawl.

The Orioles have been playing good baseball lately, winning 13 of their last 19 games through the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader with the Texas Rangers, but the Blue Jays still have caught them, passed them and built a small lead.

Going into Thursday night, the Jays had won 20 of 25 games since Aug. 13, the best record in baseball. For the Orioles, the pressure to win is constant, as incessant and irritating as a dog barking through the night.

Thursday night, they took on the considerable task of Nolan Ryan in Game 1 of the doubleheader. Scored two runs in the first. Two more in the fifth. Built a 4-1 lead.

As they ran onto the field to begin the bottom of the fifth, the scoreboard flashed the first news of the night from Cleveland, where the Blue Jays are spending the weekend: Toronto 2, Cleveland 0. Top of the first.

Jays up.

Again.

The dark cloud that never goes away. Never.

The Rangers proceeded to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth, narrowing the lead to one, but then the Orioles’ Mike Devereaux expunged Ryan with a three-run homer in the seventh. As Ryan walked off the field, however, an update from Cleveland was posted on the scoreboard: Toronto 5, Cleveland 0, second inning. Fifteen minutes later, another update: 8-0, third inning.

Think about this now. If you are the Orioles, you have just hammered Nolan Ryan for the third time this season, a feat of no small consequence; yet, now you must win the second game of the doubleheader or you will have lost a half-game to Toronto when the night is through.

If you are the Orioles, you curse the very light bulbs. It is the scoreboard’s fault. The damn scoreboard. It never offers even a flicker of hope. It mocks. It daunts. It swaggers. It is a greeting card with a black border: Having great time, ha, signed Toronto.

“There is nothing we can do about it,” Orioles Manager Frank Robinson said. “Toronto is just playing outstanding baseball right now. There isn’t a thing we can do about the scoreboard.”

No, and it is just out of control right now, a fire in dry grass. Even as the Orioles were scoring six runs in the first three innings of Game 2 Thursday night, the score was mounting in Cleveland. First, 9-0. Then, 11-3. Message to Orioles: A half-game is all you’re getting for all those runs, fellas, and you wouldn’t even be getting that if we were playing two, too.

“We know they are playing really well right now,” said the Orioles’ Jeff Ballard, who won his 16th game Thursday night. “All we can do is try to keep up. If they keep playing this way, we’re going to need some help. Hopefully, they’ve peaked a little early.”