Orioles Cash In On Guardians Erratic Pitching, End Six Game Slide

The Orioles were having a heck of a time swinging the bats and scoring any runs, so the Guardians were kind enough to allow them to send runners across the plate without actually having to take the bat off their shoulders.

Guardians starter Joey Cantillo, we warned you he was beyond wild lately, couldn’t throw strikes, the walks and hit batters started early and continued through the game and Baltimore snapped its six-game losing streak with a 6-4 breakout against Cleveland Monday afternoon at Camden Yards. Cantillo walked five and hit two in allowing four runs while registering just 10 outs, and infielder Coby Mayo led the way as the Orioles finally scored some runs and cut Cleveland’s Wild Card lead to three games.

The O’s entered this series scoring just 15 times in 56 innings and scored once in the final three games of a four-game sweep by the Red Sox. But Cantillo walked the first two batters he faced, Baltimore broke through in the second on a Dylan Beavers base hit after a walk and hit-by-pitch, and then Mayo hit his first blast in the third.

Mayo leads MLB in OPS vs lefties and is having one of the Orioles’ all-time power hitting season vs southpaws, now just two from tying the franchise’s high (18). Mayo also crushed one off a righty to pad the lead to 6-1 late, continuing a strong second-half and notching 21 homers on the season.

“Just experience, playing every day, and in the cage with some good players, just being around the guys,” Mayo said to the MASN broadcast of his second-half surge after the game. “You learn a lot about yourself when you go through some struggles.”

In between those homers, Blaze Alexander worked a walk from a 0-2 count – over the course of 11 pitches – with the bases loaded to make it 3-0 and Pete Alonso walked again after that; believe it or not Cantillo was already gone and reliever Franco Aleman issued those two walks. The Guardians simply could not throw strikes and the Orioles had some quality at bats en masse for the first time in over a week.

Too Little, Too Late?

Problem is, the damage is done and it’s all probably too late, given how many teams passed them in the Wild Card standings recently, and given their inability to go on any sort of winning streaks (one of five games all season). They also got a sterling outing from starter Trevor Rogers.

The Guardians lineup suffers, they are last in MLB in runs per game and they had no answers for Rogers. He pushed into the 8th inning and walked no one – striking in contrast for Cleveland – and struck out six, with a stellar 78 strikes on 104 pitches.

It was more than enough to stop the recent rot, but good thing he got 22 outs, as the 9th-inning woes continued for the Birds. Andrew Kittredge is running out of steam and a few unlucky hits to center were followed by a three-run homer; he has allowed at least one hit in 10 straight outings. Trading Tyler Wells was always going to wound this product, and boy has it. Josh Walker came in needing one out up by two runs and he got Patrick Bailey to fly out.

So the Orioles survived. But better starting pitchers await in this series, and we’ll see if the Orioles can manage to look competent at the plate for more than one afternoon.

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