Believe it or not, the 2026 Orioles have the exact same record as the 2025 version that got its skipper fired before Memorial Day – 42-50. Believe it or not, they still can’t hit lefties, entering Tuesday with the fifth-worst OPS vs them and getting shutdown through six innings by one who had been struggling all season.Despite what manager Craig Albernaz spews about his pathetic ballclub – boasting the other night about the quality of their at bats all season long – this 5-2 loss to the Cubs at Camden Yards was completely fitting within the tapestry of weak Orioles outings since June 2024. Matthew Boyd carved them up in his longest outing of the season, yielding just three hits, and the swing-and-miss happy Orioles (worst K-rate in MLB since June 1) struck out 12 times.Believe it or not, this team that fraud baseball czar Mike Elias claimed would compete to win the division is now last in the AL East … and 10-17 vs lefties and 21-31 vs winning teams. (We told you all along it will be a firesale at the deadline and it best include their lone All Star as well.) Believe it or not Albernaz spoke about another team's middling starting pitcher like he was Cy Young again.Believe it or not, this lineup remains putrid, with Albernaz making another tweak that didn’t work (Taylor Ward back to lead-off) and Baltimore being held to three runs or less for the seventh time in the last 10 games. He tried four lefty bats vs a lefty to mix it up' believe ir or not that failed."It's not desperation," the overmatched skipper said after the game. "We're trying to problem solve left-handed pitching."Believe it or not, the alleged top-of-the-rotation piece that Elias landed in the offseason, Shane Baz, continues to surrender routinely loud contact.Believe it or not, Gunnar Henderson, mired in a lost season with a skipper who refuses to drop him in the lineup, came into the game with an .382 OPS with runners in scoring position and two outs, struck out with two on after Adley Rutschman’s single produced the O’s opening runs in the seventh inning.Believe it or not, of course there were goofy fielding plays, with Jackson Holliday’s pop-gun arm unable to turn a double play and Taylor Ward triple clutching and never making a throw allowing lumbering Miguel Amaya to score on a sac fly. And, believe it or not, Amaya (another No. 9 hitting catcher) drew a two-out walk to turn over a potent lineup earlier in the game and came around to score the Cubs first run in the third inning."I feel like a lot of times it comes back to the walks," Baz told reporters after the loss, with Albernaz referring to the walk to the nine-hole hitter as Baz's kryptonite.So, yeah, stop me if you’ve read this one before.What About Baz? Baz wasn’t fooling anyone with anything Tuesday. The Cubs can mash and everything was hot off the bat. Baz got lucky the first trip through the order but then balls started falling instead of being scorched right at someone. At least he didn’t give up a longball, but he did give up six hits and three runs through six innings.Baz’s stuff ticked up recently and he was getting more chase and whiffs, but he gave up 10 hard hit balls Tuesday and threw 100 pitches with the Cubs swinging and missing all of seven times. He wasn’t sharp and he wasn’t crisp but he is painfully erratic – man if that ain’t Elias’s type.Albernaz, being utterly out of his depth, wasn’t content to allow reliever Anthony Nunez (getting beat around in Norfolk prior to his recall) to pitch one inning allowing one run, but when the O’s finally cut the lead to 4-2, of course he gave Nunez the 8th inning as well, so he could invariably give up another run, which he did."Our guys were running pretty hot," Albernaz said, with the workloads of his other reliever part of the reason he decided to let Nunez negate any chance of getting back in this game. "We feel confident with Nunez going back out there."What About The Bats?Boyd, meantime, has the Orioles totally mystified, because of course he did. He isn’t a swing-and-miss guy but damn if the O’s didn’t do it 15 times with him on the mound. They ended up with just six hits in the game.The Orioles had two on in the fourth with Boyd’s command suffering and him hitting Coby Mayo, then struck out three straight times. Because that’s The Elias Way.The Orioles are now 5-25 when scoring three runs or less this season since May 1, and they do it more frequently than all but six teams in MLB. Only Pete Alonso has an OPS above .800 on the roster (.807) and Henderson is now at .699 on the season.Believe it or not.Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Orioles Coverage:Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow