The Baltimore Orioles are fighting fiercely to win the AL East in two consecutive seasons for the first time since 1973-94.

Considering how many injuries this team’s star players have suffered, it’s pretty remarkable that they enter Monday just 1.5 games behind the resurgent New York Yankees.

The Orioles are already without Kyle Bradish, John Means, Tyler Wells, Grayson Rodriguez and Zach Eflin in their starting lineup, Jacob Webb and Danny Coulombe in their bullpen and Jordan Westburg and Jorge Mateo in their lineup.

That’s a pretty long list of names that won’t be able to play, and considering that at least three of those players are out for the rest of the year, it’s going to be tough for Baltimore to get as far into the playoffs as they expected at the start of the season.

Unfortunately, that’s not all the bad news.

The team announced that it had placed its star hitter Ryan Mountcastle on the 10-day IL.

After initially receiving a day diagnosis for his sprained wrist, the Orioles could no longer operate with a small bench and were forced to take this measure, recalling Livan Soto from Triple-A.

Although Mountcastle was not as successful with the longball as he had been in years past, he was still a solid hitter with an OPS+ of 109 and an offensive bWAR of 1.4.

Baltimore has been trying to delay the inevitable since he sustained that injury on Aug. 22 when he slid headfirst into second base.

It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, as he wasn’t taken out of the game until the ninth inning, but when he didn’t appear in the next three games, it was clear that things might get that far.

Hopefully this is something he can return to immediately when he comes off the injured list on September 2nd, missing the minimum amount of time without having to rehab.

In the meantime, Ryan O’Hearn is expected to do most of the work at first base.