Some nine months after the Baltimore Ravens’ lengthy preseason win streak came to an end, the Baltimore Orioles are experiencing the end of their own remarkable streak.

The Orioles lost on Wednesday to the St. Louis Cardinals by a 5-4 final score. The defeat completed a three-game series sweep by the Cardinals.

Incredibly enough, this was the very first time that the Orioles had gotten swept during the regular season in over two calendar years. Their last such series sweep came in May 2022 (a span of 106 different series played).

What makes it even more astounding is that this was the very first sweep of the season by the struggling 23-26 Cardinals. They managed to do so against one of the best teams in the American Leagues as well in the 29-18 Orioles. You never know quite what is going to happen in the sport of baseball.

The Orioles did get swept 3-0 by the Texas Rangers in last season’s playoffs (during the ALDS), so many fans saw the streak as fairly arbitrary, anyway. But at least this streak did not end on a technicality like another one we saw in Major League Baseball this year.

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Orioles sweepless streak snapped as series of miscues leads to 5-4 loss to Cardinals

The sweepless streak is dead. Long live the sweepless streak. If the Orioles had sat down at the start of the day on Wednesday and planned out the most optimum way for them to be swept, they could hardly have drawn up a better plan than what they actually did. The O’s did not get cheated out of this thing snapping. There were several key plays and different Orioles blew all of them in different, 2021 Oriole-esque ways. The result of it all was that the Cardinals finished it off with a 5-4 victory over the O’s for a third straight loss. It’s done.

Had they played better, the story might have been one where the Orioles pulled another rabbit out of their hats to keep the streak alive, as they’ve done more than a dozen times in the two years. The chances were there for the O’s to do it, especially after they were gifted three early runs against old friend Kyle Gibson.

The Orioles third inning opened with Ramón Urías reaching base with a single. Catcher James McCann rolled a would-be double play ball towards the normally sure-handed Nolan Arenado, who botched it and wasn’t able to get anybody out. This is not the last time a play like this happened in the game. With their bottom of the lineup hitters on base and the lineup turning over, better hitters capitalized. Gunnar Henderson drove in the first run of the game with a single. Ryan O’Hearn delivered an RBI groundout, and Anthony Santander added a third run with a single of his own.

All of this early scoring was in support of John Means, who put up zeroes for the first three innings. However, Means was seen doing some shaking of his arm as the game went along and his fastball velocity was down 2-3 miles per hour. Albert Suárez was warming as the Orioles batted in the fourth. Lightning and rain arrived in the stadium area and the game was delayed, but Means was going to be done either way.

Manager Brandon Hyde confirmed after the game that Means felt some elbow soreness and will be getting some tests done. The six-man Orioles rotation might be dead before six guys even pitch in it.