The stretch of baseball the Baltimore Orioles are going through is supposed to be one of the toughest in the league. After succeeding in May, the month that was to stop the upstart Orioles, this is the stretch that is supposed to break them.
As they close in on the once untouchable Rays, the Orioles faced the suddenly hot and healthy Los Angeles Dodgers at Camden Yards.
One thing the Orioles had to be careful of was looking ahead to the series immediately following this one, a four-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays from St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Orioles jumped out quickly in the first game, but a misplayed fly ball and a grand slam took the wind out of the young Birds’ sails. They would drop game one and get blown out in game two. The O’s persevered in the final game to avoid the sweep, something they’ve now done for 70 straight series.
Let’s take a look at how the series unfolded:
GAME 1: O’s 4, LA 6
The return of Grayson Rodriguez was the talk of the day, and the young rookie came in with something to prove. As outlined in our Let’s Recap: Grayson Rodriguez’s return to Major League Baseball piece, the young flamethrower looked different this time around.
Pitching with confidence, poise and commanding the strike zone early, Rodriguez would pitch five innings for just the second time in his big league career.
His line of five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and two walks, looks worse than the actual reality of the outing. Rodriguez would leave in the sixth inning, up 4-2, after allowing a triple (on a misplayed fly ball), single and a walk.
Enter Bryan Baker, who had not given up a run in seven of his last eight outings, who walked a batter and then proceeded to throw three straight fastballs to a hitter batting .080 on two-strike pitches. The third fastball ended up in the left-center over the wall for a grand slam that moved the score to 6-4 in LA’s favor.
On offense, the Orioles jumped out to a 4-0 lead from four extra-base hits in their first five hits. Capped by an Adley Rutschman solo shot, the Orioles were coasting with a 4-1 lead.
Mike Baumann (0.2 innings) and Nick Vespi (2.1 innings) would stop the bleeding, but the Birds would drop the game 6-4 to end their eight-game winning streak.
GAME 2: O’s 3, LA 10
This game was out of reach for the Birds by the second inning. The Boys in Blue jumped out for five runs against Tyler Wells, who was uncharacteristically out of sync.
Allowing six hits and walking two, Wells would last just two innings, as the Birds looked out of sync all game. By the end of the game, the Orioles had allowed 10 runs (nine earned), committed four errors and looked lost the entire game.
The O’s offense totaled nine hits for the game, with three of them coming in the eighth inning when they scored their third and final run.
Cole Irvin pitched four strong innings, though he was charged with two runs. His outing helped save the bullpen from being emptied and kept the game from getting further out of hand than what it was. The Orioles would lose 10-3 and needed to win game three to avoid the sweep.
GAME 3: O’s 8, LA 5
The Dean Kremer revenge game was more valuable in the end than most people realized, as the Orioles were trying to prevent being swept for the first time in 14 months. They are just the eighth team in AL/NL history to go 70+ multi-game series without being swept.
The Dodgers quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Baltimore, determined to not go down without a fight, returned the favor by putting up a four spot in the bottom half. A walk, two singles and a two-run double by Ramón Urías would give the Orioles a 4-2 lead after the first inning.
In the third inning, a double by Jordan Westburg, a walk from Gunnar Henderson and another double by Urías would make the score 5-2. Henderson would then score on a wild pitch, making it 6-2 O’s after three.
An Austin Hays sacrifice fly in the fourth and a Henderson home run (15) in the fifth capped the scoring for the Orioles.
Kremer would fail to make it through five innings, only the fourth time in 20 games, giving up five earned runs in 4.2 innings of work. He walked four and struck out just one batter.
Danny Coulombe (3-1) would pitch 2.1 innings before handing the game over to Yennier Canó (H, 22) and Félix Bautista (SV, 26) to close the game and secure the 8-5 victory.
BATTERY ❌-FACTOR
This series’ BATTERY ❌-FACTOR was placed solely on the shoulders of the starting pitching.
Sadly, the rotation was a major problem, as rookie Grayson Rodriguez would total the most innings, five, and each starter gave up at least four earned runs in their starts.
Rodriguez (5 innings, 4 ER), Tyler Wells (2 innings, 5 ER) and Dean Kremer (4.2 innings, 5 ER) combined for 11.2 innings and 14 earned runs (11.25 ERA), would go 0-1 in the three games and outside of Rodriguez, would make the games harder on the offense.
The Orioles would drop the series mainly in part of the pitching, but the starting pitching failed to live up to its recent success.
Shortly after the Orioles series concluded, the Orioles not only saved their non-sweep streak, but they would also move into first place, as the Tampa Bay Rays would lose to the Texas Rangers.
The O’s will now head to St. Petersburg, Florida, to take on those Tampa Bay Rays for a four-game series starting tomorrow at 6:40 p.m. EST. The biggest series of the season, as of right now, is for sole possession of first place and will show the moxy of the young Orioles.
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