Even back towards the end of May, when the Orioles were still playing at a similar kind of pace compared to what they did a year ago, the team was regularly suffering enough annoying losses that it was not hard to feel like the team just didn’t have the “it” that let them go 101-61 for the 2023 season.
I wrote about this at the time, looking back on what happened from each of Dan Duquette’s playoff teams to what went wrong the next season. The 2024 Orioles, at least at the end of May, were not ready to be lumped in with those past disappointments, even after the frustration of the sweepless streak finally coming to an end against the then- (and still-)underwhelming Cardinals.