Orioles Bats Come Alive Late Again, Beat Houston For 5th Straight Win

The Orioles have a way to sniff out the weakest link in a bullpen, the most vulnerable arm at any given moment, and they did it again late Friday night.

After slumbering through seven innings and getting absolutely mowed down by starter Peter Lambert and reliever Steve Okert (12 strikeouts between them) and trailing, 2-1, Adley Rutschman doubled to lead off the inning and Taylor Ward homered off slumping Bryan King and Baltimore found a way to extend its season-long win streak to five games, with a 3-2 win at Diakin Park.

"I'm just trying to get a good pitch to hit, of course," Ward told the MASN broadcast after the game. "Trying to get something in the middle, and he kind of hung a slider there."

Manager Craig Albernaz told the media after the game: "It was tough to get things going (offensively) and that was a big swing by Ward."

The Astros wasted repeated opportunities to make this game more lopsided including facing newly recently acquired reliever Cam Sanders in the 7th. Sanders, making a sterling debut with the Orioles got out a bases-loaded jam with one out to stay within a run. Baltimore needs to seize every opportunity is has after a horrible first half, and faces one of the most daunting schedules in MLB in the second half including 18 of 27 on the road. The Orioles were 18-26 away from home coming in, and this felt like a vital reversal of fortune for them in the 8th.

The Orioles have also been among MLB’s worst in one-run games all season, but won a squeaker with the bullpen doing sterling work after starter Dean Kremer could only go four innings in constantly deep counts. They are going to have to start swinging the bats on the road; they got away with their usual misguided approach Friday but it’s a tough way to operate.

"Cam was great," Albernaz said. "Throwing strikes, the slider had some really good shape and bite to it and the fastball was real."

And they may have to do it for the rest of the season without third baseman Blaze Alexander, out indefinitely with a broken hand, as Albernaz updated his situation before the game. Alexander was a top 10 hitter in all of MLB from April 28 through the All-Star break and they also lost their best remaining glove on the left side of the infield, and his energy and intensity were sorely lacking Friday.

The Orioles live or die with the homer (Mike Elias only builds such flawed rosters) and they are 23rd on the road in that regard and just 23rd in OBP with a .685 OPS and the worst road strikeout rate in baseball. All of that showed right back up as the All-Star break ended.

Oh, and they don’t hit starting pitchers no matter where they play and, stop me if you heard this before, Lambert had the best start of his career, giving up just three hits and one run and striking out 10 (career best) through six innings. Luckily for the Orioles, the Astros couldn’t take advantage of opportunities to go up big.

Short Start For Kremer

Orioles starter Dean Kremer didn’t have it tonight from the start.

Walking Jeremy Pena in front of Yordan Alvarez – the best hitter in the American League – was a heck of a way to open the game and Alvarez smashed a ball nearly out of the park for an immediate Astros lead. The Astros constantly spat on pitches and splayed balls around and worked counts.

Kremer did get some swing and miss, with critical strikeouts of ex-Oriole Christian Walker in the first and third to help quell further damage but everything was a struggle. Pena singled the second time through and Alvarez singled and another run scored on a sac fly.

Kremer needed 71 pitches to get through three innings (only 43 were strikes) and he was lucky that three early walks didn’t cause more damage. Lambert also started slowly, walking three straight batters to plate a run (Ward may have been picked off first base but Houston didn’t challenge; Jeremiah Jackson did get picked off in the 9th). And Gunnar Henderson couldn’t produce again with men on and two outs (.400 OPS in those situations) before Lambert found his stride.

The Orioles pen was exceptional save for Grant Wolfram, their only lefty, who got into trouble in the 8th before he was bailed out. Andrew Kittredge got the 8th and Tyler Wells, flashing his change-up, worked the ninth for the save, getting Alvarez to pop out with Pena on in the process and striking out Walker (three strikeouts on the night) to end the game.

'It was a great win," Albernaz said.

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