Sunday’s loss for the Orioles, sending them to Detroit with their season teetering now more than ever, was like far too many to come before it the last two years.It featured them giving away runs in the field and giving away outs on the base paths and coming up small with runners in scoring position and lacking much of a pulse as a baseball team until the very late innings. It was quintessential Mike Elias ball – The Elias Way of backwards, twisted and ugly baseball that he defined the failure of a baseball exec who builds these Frankenstein rosters year after year.It was a triple crown of poorly executed fielding, running and hitting in the clutch that has become their hallmark, more than enough to sabotage consecutive seasons despite the pitching being better than expected. It captures what they have become since June 21, 2024, when they joined the dregs of MLB with a bottom-seven winning percentage in that span, and it reinforced that this latest overmatching coaching staff and front office is only making things worse.“In a close game like this there’s a lot of stuff you can go back to,” puppet rookie skipper Craig Albernaz said after this game, like so many others. The individual and collective failures have marred any semblance of The Oriole Way and forced their fans to endure ugly, low IQ loss after ugly low IQ loss as their most vital homegrown hitters continue to come up small.When the Orioles allow an unearned run (Colton Cowser booted a single into a double for early Sunday) and when they strikeout as much as they have been (9 more times Sunday) and when they are asleep on base taking bigger leads than the situation would ever warrant (Pete Alonso in the 10th inning), then they lose. Especially when the long balls are dried up (bottom five in MLB since the All-Star break).But it also captured who they really are:Unearned RunsThe Orioles lead the MLB with 64 unearned runs allowed this season, more than any team in baseball, with no signs of slowing down. Losing Blaze Alexander – their best and most dynamic glove - and their two top catchers was always going to sting. But this was an awful defensive team before that – Elias doesn’t value fielding and their staffs are inept at establishing strong fundamentals and they can’t get prospects to be experts at a singular position. And they are far better at handing teams extra runs than any team in MLB.The Pirates are next in unearned runs allowed at 58 and no one else in the Americal League even has 52 (the Yankees are next up at 51). That’s quite a chasm. Sunday was Baltimore’s 34th game with an unearned run, most in MLB, and they are 14-20 in those contests. And 51-55 overall, eh? Hmm.Too Much Swing And MissThe Orioles have played nine games since the All-Star break; they have struck out at least eight times in eight of them. They have the second-highest K-rate in MLB on the road (26.1% with the Pirates at 26.2%), so this isn’t surprising, but it’s clearly getting worse and not better. And when your best player, Gunnar Henderson, is falling pretty to it, you might be cooked. The Orioles have played 77 games this season in which they have struck out at least eight times. That leads MLB, as you may have guessed. And they are 35-42 on the season in those games. And when you combine them committing an error or giving away an out by getting picked off or being absent-minded on a double play, they lack the pop and slug to overcome it.Their strikeout totals since the All-Star break: 9, 14, 11, 5, 8, 15, 10, 15, 13.Runners Left On BaseSunday covered this ingrained flaw as well. They went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and they left 12 men on base. Basallo and Alexander were two of their three most clutch everyday bats (Alonso is the other), and no one outside of just-recalled former prospect Christian Encarnacion-Strand has picked up any slack.Sunday was the 47th time this season they left eight men or more on base, that is in the bottom five of MLB.When they strike out 10 times a game, the other team only faces a maximum of 17 opportuntiies to have to field the ball for outs. And their errors give the opponent 28 or 29 opportunities to produce runs over nine innings, instead of just 27. That's losing math.It’s a lot to overcome and there are no signals anyone in charge of these players or this roster knows how to curb it and time is running out.Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Orioles Coverage:Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow