To begin the hot month of August, the Baltimore Orioles pay visit to the Guardians in Cleveland, as this will be a match-up of the best two winning percentage teams in the American League.
The Guards got the best of the Birds the first time around in Baltimore back in late June. This time around, Cleveland’s offense is a lot more cooled off.
Tasked with trying to shutdown this scrappy Guardians offense will be attempted by newly-acquired Trevor Rogers (2-9, 4.53 ERA) against Ben Lively (9-5, 3.44 ERA) in game one. Game two will feature Dean Kremer (4-7, 4.20 ERA) against Carlos Carrasco (3-9, 5.68 ERA), with Zach Eflin (6-7, 4.11 ERA) vs. Tanner Bibee (9-4, 3.48 ERA) in game three and finally Corbin Burnes (11-4, 2.47 ERA) vs. a “to be determined” starter in game four.
The Birds enter with some fire in their bats, as newfound lead-off phenom Colton Cowser is slashing .315/.378/.507 with an OPS of .885 OPS since July 1. Second base will also now be held down by Jackson Holliday, who hit his first major league home run yesterday. His first grand slam and first Eutaw Street knock all at once.
ROSTER MOVES
Hold on tight. The Orioles made a plethora of roster moves prior to the start of this four-game set. They are listed as follows:
- Activated DH/OF Eloy Jiménez – he will wear No. 72
- Activated OF Austin Slater – he will wear No. 15
- Activated LHP Trevor Rogers – he will wear No. 28
- Recalled INF Liván Soto from Triple-A Norfolk – he will wear No. 73
- Optioned OF Heston Kjerstad and LHP Keegan Akin to Triple-A Norfolk
- Placed INF Jordan Westburg on the 10-day injured list with a right hand fracture
- Designated OF Cristian Pache for assignment
BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR
The BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR for this series is going to look a little different.
How the offense comes out, now without Jordan Westburg for the foreseeable future and now with Holliday, and a lot more Ramón Urías, will be a big contributing key to the O’s success in this series.
Westburg has been the backbone of this club both offensively and defensively, and losing that glove and bat will immediately make an impact. It will be interesting to see where the right-handed hitting production will come from now without The Producer.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP
This series kicks off Thursday evening at 6:40 p.m. EST on MASN. Friday and Sunday’s games will also be featured on MASN, with Friday’s contest starting at 7:10 p.m. EST and Sunday’s at 1:40 p.m. EST. Game three on Saturday will NOT be on MASN and instead will be on FOX with first pitch at 7:15 p.m. EST.
How do you see this series playing out?
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