Thanks in part to the Oakland Athletics, who just took two out of four from the Yankees in New York, the Baltimore Orioles travel back to Camden Yards atop the AL East. Their opponent? Those same Oakland A’s.
The Birds enter this series 16-8 and are coming off the back of a series win on the road against the Los Angeles Angels. Gunnar Henderson was absolutely on fire in that series and looks to continue his bid for the O’s third straight AL Player of the Week.
In his last seven games, Henderson is slugging .857 with three homers and 11 hits in just 28 at-bats. He doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
The top of the rotation will kick this series off for the O’s. Game one will be started by Baltimore’s ace Corbin Burnes (3-0, 2.76 ERA), with former Athletic Cole Irvin (1-1, 4.64 ERA) and Albert Suárez (1-0, 0.00 ERA) in games two and three, respectively.
Irvin is in line for somewhat of a revenge game in this series. Before the 2023 season began, the A’s shipped him off to the Orioles in exchange for infield prospect Darrell Hernaiz. Now, Hernaiz will be tasked with facing Irvin after what was Irvin’s best start so far with the O’s, a 6.2 scoreless outing against the Kansas City Royals last Sunday.
Oakland will send veteran right-hander Ross Stripling (0-5, 5.34 ERA) in game one, young left-hander JP Sears (1-1, 3.38 ERA) in game two and long-time Oakland righty Paul Blackburn (2-1, 2.03 ERA) in the series finale.
The A’s have played the Orioles pretty well over the last two years. We have seen a few young studs from Oakland shine in those series, while studs of our own did the same, like Ryan Mountcastle’s historic nine-RBI game last April.
If history keeps repeating itself, this Orioles offense is poised for a breakout series like that again to help a victory be achieved in this series. They are coming in leading the AL in home runs, OPS, runs scored and slugging percentage. This series, those numbers will need to keep up and will need to happen early in these games.
BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR
That goes right into our BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR. The offense really doesn’t want to get into a one-run pitchers duel with this A’s bullpen.
Led by Mason Miller, Oakland’s bullpen has been lock-down to a tune of a combined 3.11 ERA. On the reverse side, the O’s bullpen has struggled as of late outside of Danny Coloumbe and Craig Kimbrel.
Getting up early on the A’s starters so that their bullpen can’t pitch the way that brings them success will be important. That will also take a lot of pressure off the O’s bullpen, who must go into the next series against the Yankees as close to full strength and rest as possible.
ROSTER MOVES
Prior to the start of this series, the Orioles made a few roster moves that are worth mentioning.
The biggest being that the top prospect in baseball, Jackson Holliday, has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. The 20-year-old infielder has had a tough start to his big league career, slashing .059/.111/.059 with just two hits and 18 strikeouts in 36 plate appearances.
The O’s have selected the contract of outfielder Ryan McKenna from Triple-A Norfolk in response. Catcher David Bañuelos has been designated for assignment to make room for McKenna on the 40-man roster.
In other news, the organization announced that John Means will make another rehab start for Norfolk this Sunday, while Cionel Pérez will continue his rehab assignment with the Tides this weekend.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP
This series kicks off Friday evening at 7:05 p.m. EST, with games two and three set for 4:05 and 1:35 p.m. EST, respectively. You can catch each game on MASN or on your local Orioles Radio Network station.
How do you see this series playing out? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, Twitter (X) and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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