Pose the question to anyone in an Orioles uniform, and the pause before he speaks is pregnant. The sigh is audible, the stare far away. The question is almost as loaded as the possible answers — and there's no one answer.
Danny Valencia stood silent for 30 seconds, gathering his thoughts. Adam Jones answered for four minutes, uninterrupted, and said he could have gone on for two hours.
As they near the halfway point at a 114- OR 112-loss pace, on track for one of the worst seasons in major league history, the Orioles players who created this reality have already had plenty of time to take stock of the simple question that couldn't change much when the moment arrived to answer it: How did this happen?