Baltimore Orioles tie undesirable MLB mark, allow 258th home run of 2019 season

For weeks, it has been widely assumed that the Baltimore Orioles would make MLB history in an unfortunate way. On Wednesday evening, the franchise took one step closer, tying the Major League record by allowing their 258th home run of the 2019 season. 

Considering the Orioles will play in 35 more games, it is a virtual certainty that the record will be broken, but Baltimore's pitching futility in this one specific area seemingly isn't bothering the team all that much. It probably helped that the Orioles topped the Kansas City Royals in the game that featured the record-tying blast from Whit Merrifield in the third inning but, after the game, the focus was the future and correcting the issue. 

"We've given up a ton of homers,'' Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told ESPN. "What's the record ... 258? So, if it's 259 or 330, I don't care. I just want us to get better on the mound and obviously finish this year and go into next year trying to do a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark and staying off the barrel, but home runs are up. ... We're all tired of seeing them and hopefully we can get better going forward.''  

It should be noted that home run numbers are skyrocketing all over baseball, making the Orioles' performance slightly less damaging. Still, Baltimore is on pace to give up more than 300 home runs in a single season and the New York Yankees are already responsible for 61 of them, making history of their own with team-versus-team success. 

It's been a long year for the Orioles, as the team owns a dismal 41-86 record. If nothing else, the record should be broken this week and, from there, perhaps the focus on Baltimore's pitching staff and home run allowance will subside to some degree.