Published: July 21, 2009 11:21 pm      

How long can this keep going on?

Watching the Baltimore Orioles run the bases is like watching a little kid continue to touch the hot stove and burn himself for the eighth time in the past week. All you can do is watch it happen in slow motion over and over again and simply wonder, “Is this kid really that remarkably stupid?”

“The stove is hot; don’t touch it!”

“I won’t ... Yee-oowww!!! ... Hottttt!!!”

“Guess he is.”

Rebuilding? Not a problem. Orioles fans have been clamoring for a rebuild for years, and are on board all the way now that Andy MacPhail has shown the past two years he is a guy you want orchestrating the reconstruction of your favorite baseball team.

Some ugly losses along the way — ugly in the form of occasional routs taking place at the expense of young and inexperienced pitchers? Understandable. It’s called the learning curve, and besides, routs happen. That’s baseball. The only problem is when they keep happening to the same pitchers, and so far, that hasn’t been the case.

Now, you want an ugly loss that is completely unacceptable? How about a 2-1 loss on a ninth-inning walk-off home run to the New York Yankees in the new Yankee Stadium?

What can be so ugly about that? You hold the Yankees to two runs in that home-run friendly wind tunnel, and you’ve obviously received a great pitching performance by somebody. Wouldn’t this be a good tough-love loss that only offers promise for the future of the young pitching staff?

To a degree, yes, because Orioles starter David Hernandez continued to impress Monday night with a solid six-inning effort, followed by fine relief work by Mark Hendrickson and Joe Johnson, until Johnson gave up the game-winner to Hideki Matsui.

Yet it was another ugly loss for the Orioles because they went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and both Nolan Reimold and Cesar Izturis failed to score from first base on balls hit into the right field corner, although we’ll cut them both some slack since there were less than two outs in both instances and discretion is the better part of valor. Yet it’s inexcusable that neither baserunner, nor either base coach, picked up either hit to right.

It was an ugly loss because in a 1-1 tie in the top of the eighth, the Orioles still had runners on second and third with one out, and the final two outs would be registered at home plate on successive pitches — the first on a nice play by Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira and catcher Jose Molina on a sharp grounder by Nick Markakis, and the second one on a wild pitch, which Roberts lost track of coming down the third base line, causing him to hesitate, before turning on the gas and being tagged out at the plate to kill yet another scoring opportunity.

Actually, it appeared Roberts was tagged out around the plate, because replays didn’t indicate he was able to touch the plate. So why he and manager Dave Trembley chose to argue the call is anybody’s guess.

The past two seasons the Orioles have become YouTube’s favorite baserunning team, and that would be a little easier to understand if most of the gaffes were being made by the younger players on the team. But these ongoing blunders have consistently come from veterans such as Roberts, Aubrey Huff, Luke Scott and Mel The Miserable Mora. How can this be, and why is it allowed to happen over and over again?

The core of this club’s veteran position players must take responsibility for a change. Yes, Roberts has been fighting some illnesses, but for most of the season it’s appeared he’s had a case of seller’s remorse since signing his contract extension. Roberts is a heck of a ballplayer, but he hasn’t seemed himself all season long.

Huff appears to have a slow bat right now, and if that’s the case, who knows? Maybe he’s not used to playing first base every day — a pretty good first base at that. Scott, along with Adam Jones, has been the Orioles best hitter this season, so few complaints there. Mora, on the other hand ... Well, let’s just say his body language has always been dreadful, but that’s easier to take when he’s hitting and not having excellent adventures on the bases.

Ultimately, the responsibility must fall on Trembley and his base coaches, John Shelby and Juan Samuel. With poor baserunning being such a constant with this club there is nowhere else to cast the final accountability.

Occasional mistakes on the bases are one thing. Having to hold your breath each night whenever an Oriole reaches base is another thing, because you lose games you should win by running yourself out of scoring opportunities.

The Orioles lead the league in this department, and if it doesn’t soon stop, avoiding the annual late-season Baltimore collapse, that could save the jobs of a certain manager and his staff, will become the unavoidable. If it hasn’t already come to that.

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.