BALTIMORE, Md. — It wasn't supposed to end like this.
The face of a new dawn of Orioles baseball, Adley Rutschman was supposed to be here longer.
But he and others are gone now and the locker room is doing their best to regroup and push forward.
"As a friend, he's someone I've grown really close with," said outfielder Colton Cowser. "He's going to be in my wedding and someone who I'm going to miss dearly on a day-to-day basis."
Losing Rutschman, Taylor Ward and Tyler Wells on deadline day was a big blow on the field and in the locker room. But Orioles players also put the blame on themselves, saying if they played better and won more, then the front office wouldn't have had to make those trades.
"It's conflicting emotions because if you're expected to do something and you fall short, there's consequences to that and that's just the reality of the industry," said first baseman Pete Alonso.
"We're in this situation because of the record of the play on the field."
Still, the Orioles entered Tuesday just two and a half games out of playoff position and are not planning on throwing away the rest of the season.
"Within that clubhouse there's a lot of confidence in there that we can still make a push here. And the biggest thing for me was there's 50 games left. There's a 50-game sprint to the finish line. What can we do with these next 50 games to give ourselves a chance," said manager Craig Albernaz.
What's certain is that O's fans will be ready to welcome Rutschman back to Oriole Park when he returns with Boston in early September. What's less certain is where the Orioles will be in the playoff race at that time, assuming they're still in it at all.
