HOUSTON – The Orioles left New York on Thursday with their biggest wins of the season.
Baltimore swept back-to-back series against the Phillies and Yankees, then the top two teams in baseball, winning four of six games. On Thursday, they scored a season-high 17 runs and won two of three games against their division rivals.
They arrived in Houston early Friday and showed signs of running out of steam as the evening wore on, allowing their season-highest number of runs, nine of them in the sixth inning of their 14-11 loss. But the Orioles hung on, fought to the end, and scored seven runs in the eighth inning to lose by just three runs.
The night started well for the Orioles. They made early contact with Astros starter Jake Bloss, who was making his MLB debut, and scored two runs in the third inning on RBIs from Ryan O’Hearn and Anthony Santander. Bloss left in the fourth inning due to injury.
Grayson Rodriguez allowed just two runs in the first and second innings, but things really got out of hand in the fifth inning when Jake Meyers hit a three-run home run.
In the sixth inning, the Orioles fell apart. Mauricio Dubón opened the inning with a walk and Joey Loperfido hit a grounder that bounced off Ryan Mountcastle’s glove and into right field, leading to a double and allowing Dubón to score.
Then came the rush.
Jacob Webb replaced Rodriguez and immediately allowed a walk and a double, bringing Rodriguez’s final total to seven earned runs, a season high. Then Webb allowed four earned runs and Dillion Tate three as the Astros scored nine runs in the sixth inning.
The pitchers, who have held on despite three injuries, have fallen apart a bit. Webb was one of their freshest pitchers, although he only pitched once in the Yankees series, but he still threw the second most pitchers on the team this season. Tate appeared in two games in New York, even making the save in one, helping the Orioles win in extra innings.
The Orioles used Nick Vespi for the seventh and eighth innings. He has two options left, and it would be logical to send him down to bring in a much-needed fresh arm. However, the Orioles don’t have many options to fall back on. Jonathan Heasley and Bruce Zimmermann are on the injured list, and Matt Krook is the only other left-handed reliever on their 40-man roster.
Baltimore later regained its strength, with Gunnar Henderson hitting home runs in the seventh and eighth innings and the Orioles hitting a total of seven home runs in the eighth inning, but that still wasn’t enough to make up the deficit their pitchers had built up.
