For only the second time in the organization’s history, the Orioles travel to the third edition of Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.
This three-game series will be a clash of some of the best uniforms in baseball, as well as a showdown of some familiar faces.
The Orioles come in at 29-15, good for second in the stacked AL East. The Cardinals, however, enter in at 20-26 in fourth place in the NL Central. The O’s will look to extend their regular season streak of consecutive sweepless series to 107 in this set.
The pitching matchup for this series should be the highlight. The O’s will send Dean Kremer (3-3, 3.72 ERA) out in game one, followed by Kyle Bradish (0-0, 2.63 ERA) in game two and John Means (2-0, 3.06 ERA) in game three.
Bradish had his first truly dominant start of his career last time he took the mound in Busch Stadium. Back on May 10, 2022, in just his third career start, Bradish tossed a beautiful 11-strikeout gem over seven innings of work.
For the Cardinals, their rotation this series will feature Sonny Gray (5-2, 3.05 ERA) in game one, with Lance Lynn (1-2, 4.17 ERA) in game two and our old friend Kyle Gibson (3-2, 4.09 ERA) in game three.
This will be Gibson’s first start against the O’s since April of 2021. He’s looking forward to facing his old club, as you can see from the above tweet.
Heading out on this trip, the O’s look to continue their production on the road. So far, they are a stunning 12-5 in away games. Any stretch of games in MLB will never truly be easy, but kicking off a road trip against the Cards before heading to face the Chicago White Sox should be a good time to gain some ground in a tough division.
However, game one of this series will be game number four in a row for the Birds, with no day off until May 30. That means the starting rotation will have to provide some length, and starting out, this six-man rotation may help out with that.
Offensively, things have been looking up recently, and hopefully, that will continue for Baltimore. Gunnar Henderson has been on a tear, with a home run in each of his last three games. With three right-handers on the mound for St. Louis, expect some more Henderson highlights.
Both Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays got their bats going in the last series, and it would be great to see that continue. Not to mention, Colton Cowser has gotten back on track with seven hits in his last seven games, including seven walks and two extra-base hits.
BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR
The most important thing here, which will be our BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR for the series, will be how the O’s bullpen starts this long stretch of consecutive games.
The pen got beat up a bit in games two and three against Seattle. What will be important to see in this series will be their ability to come in and strand any inhereited runners, which will shorten the outings for these arms and allow some guys to stretch out a little further.
Having both Cole Irvin and Albert Suárez should continue to help when it comes to long relief. However, Irvin may be unavailable in game one after appearing in the series finale against the Mariners.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP
This inter-league series will begin on Monday evening at 7:45 p.m. EST, with game two set for the same time and an early 1:15 p.m. EST start on Wednesday. You can catch each game on MASN2 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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