Before heading back out on the road again for a West Coast trip, the Baltimore Orioles stop by Camden Yards to take on the Houston Astros for four games.
The Astros come in as one of the hottest teams in baseball with a season record sitting at 68-58, while the Birds continue to barely tread water at 74-54.
This past series against the New York Mets continued to expose a lot of holes this Orioles roster currently has, while also highlighting some silver linings. Going into this series against the Astros, Ramón Urías may just be the lineup’s key, as he’s hitting .368 with a .737 OPS in his last seven games, which includes two home runs.
On the mound will for the Orioles will be Corbin Burnes (12-5, 3.10 ERA) against Spenser Arighetti (5-11, 5.20 ERA) in game one. That will be followed by Cade Povich (1-6, 5.77 ERA) vs. “TBD” in game two, Albert Suárez (6-4, 3.18 ERA) vs. “TBA” in game three and, finally, “TBA” vs. “TBA” in game four.
This series would be a great time to get back to many of this club’s old ways. However, it won’t be easy against a team that is playing as well as the Astros are right now.
ROSTER MOVES
Prior to the start of this series, the Orioles made a plethora of roster moves, which we list for you below:
- Activated INF Emmanuel Rivera
- Selected the contract of RHP Matt Bowman from Triple-A Norfolk
- Recalled LHP Nick Vespi from Triple-A Norfolk
- Optioned LHP Trevor Rogers, RHP Colin Selby and INF Livan Soto to Triple-A Norfolk
- Designated LHP Bruce Zimmermann for assignment
BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR
The BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR for this series relies solely on the O’s offensive production.
Yes, the starting pitching has been hit or miss. Yes, the bullpen has blown multiple games late. The fact the bullpen was even in a lot of these games late to blow despite how poorly the offense has been producing in clutch situations and with runners in scoring position is actually quite impressive.
What needs to happen in this series, against a team that can do it very well themselves, is some small ball. Without better at-bats, doing everything possible to get runners over and putting pressure on the defense, it will be a long series. If the home run ball isn’t clicking for the Birds, the best chance for success is manufacturing runs efficiently, which has been a tough task so far.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP
Game one of this series begins Thursday evening at 7:08 p.m. EST on FOX. Games two and three will be televised on MASN2 with start times of 7:05 p.m. and 4:05 p.m. EST, respectively. Game four will conclude this series on Sunday evening at 7:10 p.m. EST on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.
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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