Orioles SWEEP Astros Out Of All-Star Break

The Orioles got some heroic efforts from the likes of Cam Sanders, Tyler O'Neil, and just about the entire pitching staff as they swept the Astros out of the All-Star break and are now 2 games out of the Wild Card with the red-hot Red Sox looming! #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Welcome in, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the Charm City Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollihan. We're on this Monday afternoon. To give you an idea in just a couple hours of when we're recording this, so trying to get this out there as quickly as possible for the masses. The Orioles come out of the All-Star Break and they keep the winning streak alive as they have won seven in a row. They've won seven in a row now, and they currently sit as we sit here ahead of tonight's action, as the Orioles will bring in the Boston Red Sox for three-game series. I'll tell you. One team winning seven in a row in the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox, 13 in a row. There was a quote that I saw the other day, someone put made me laugh. When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, you know, the line from the Dark Knight for the Joker. That was a funny, funny little quote I saw the other day from someone as we're preparing for this series between the O's and the Sox. The Orioles, two games back of a wild card spot. Sox currently hold the final wildcard spot. Listen, the Boston Red Sox run differential right now. Plus 45. Their run differential plus 45. And sometimes, just to let you know that that stuff doesn't really mean a ton. Look at the Tigers, seven games under 500, they're plus 31 in the run differential. So that's stuff, obviously. Now, depending upon, you know, you look at the A's, minus 114 could be a reason as to why they've underperformed as bad as they've been. The Royals, minus 99, you know, kind of gives you a little bit of an idea there. Um stuff of that nature, you know, but uh and the O's right now who are minus uh 13, you know, you've got the Yankees who are plus eighty-five, and they're a game and a half back of the Rays, who are plus fourteen in their run deferential for the top spot in the AL East. But the Orioles took the road, went down to Houston after the All-Star break, and we talked about how obviously a big three-game series, you take two of three, you overtake the Astros in the wild card race, and look at what the Orioles did. They go out there clean sweep of Houston. Houston now four and a half games back of the wildcard spot. You look at the American League wildcard standings, the first series out of the All-Star Break. Now, granted, you're still within five games of the wildcard, but the Tigers, the Blue Jays, the Astro Astros, all four and a half games back. And with where we are, now that can obviously change in this week, but that just quick little weekend, things change like that in this in these standings. And you look at the I mean, look at the Red Sox. Two weeks. Two weeks. Now 13 wins is not easy to come by. But to win 13 in a row to be two games over 500 from Wednesday were at 37 in 48. Now fifty in forty-eight. It is remarkable, it really is. Now, when we talk about the series against the Astros, the one thing that I think a lot of people first take notion of is the Oriol starting pitching was terrific, as we'll get into this recap now. It started Friday with Dean Kramer on the mound. Now, Dean was I think the perfect table setter. Not that I think Brandon Young and Trevor Rogers needed a table setter, but in terms of the fact that he got it started with sure it was only four innings, it wasn't I would categorize it as a s as a fine start, but 83 pitches, four innings, allows two runs on four hits, but all the traffic that he really gave up, you would have thought the damage would have been more. And I think the offense really didn't help him. Not a great night for the offense by any means necessary. They'd get runners on, they'd get traffic on, and they couldn't, you know, figure out a way to muster up uh enough offense. You know, the Orioles uh they tied up at one with the uh bases loaded walk with Pete Alonzo, and then in the bottom of the third, Jeremy Pena leads us off with a single, Jordan Alvarez singles to get Paine to third, sack flying just like that. The Astros have the lead three hitters after the Orioles tied up at one. But the biggest moment in the game, by far, and I and I think everyone would agree with me on this. Bottom seventh, now into the game for the Orioles is Grant Wolfram. He replaces Anthony Nunez out there, Nunez, who had a grinded out outing, I I would categorize it with two innings there, looked pretty fine, you know, gets the double play uh to end the sixth on a sharp line out to Kobe Mayo, who doubled off Christian Walker. Um, but it was kind of obvious Nunez was tiring a little bit out there. But, anyways, they go to Grant Wolfram, Lucas Spence leads it off with a single, Vasquez gets him over to second on a sackbunt, so runner in scoring position, one out, walks Jeremy Peña, walks Jordan Alvarez, and with one out, Craig Albanaz goes to Cam Sanders, whom the Orioles just acquired recently from the Pittsburgh Pirates. And Sanders talk about your first appearance with your new ball club coming in with an ERA over eight. Everyone is saying, oh my goodness, and he's gotta try and get Isaac Paredes out, and then behind him's Christian Walker. This could be brutal. Well, he gets Paredes to strike out. He somehow gets him looking on a slider, you know, right down the middle. And then Christian Walker pops out to Adley Rutschman behind the plate, and I think everyone's going, oh my god, I can't believe he got out of it. It's a 2-1 game, six more outs for the Astros. If the offense doesn't score here, it's never gonna happen tonight, right? It's just the offense lost them this game. Only could muster up one run, and your pitching goes out there, and you got a heroic performance out of Cam Sanders. You have to go out there and put something together. And against Brian King, that's exactly what the O's do. Adley Rutschman. Nineteenth double of the year. He leads it off the ground rule double. And then Taylor Ward comes to the plate and belts a two-run blast over the left field wall. First pitch swinging on a sweeper, low it in, deposits it over the left field wall. Big lead for the O's. Uh 3-2, Andrew Kittridge comes into the game. Uh he works around a one-out Lamont Wade Jr. walk to get Cam Smith to fly out and Lucas Spence to fly out to Colton Kowser. That, you know, certainly I think uh when it was hit 96.7 off the bat and traveled 346 feet. A lot of people I'm sure were going, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, and the Seacals are settled under it. Definitely a huge sigh of relief. But here was an interesting part portion of the game. Tyler Wells, not Yanir Kano, to get the save in the ninth. Now, we've seen Wells come in with Helsley being out, obviously, and he's now on the 60-day IL, but I kind of thought eventually we would see Yneer Kano maybe to start the second half of uh the all-star, not technically the second half, but after the all-star break. And going with Tyler Wells, who gives out a one-out, gives up a one-out single, then a two-out walk to Perez. He gets Jordan Avarez to fly out to Kowser for the second out, which is obviously a big moment uh right there, but then comes back to get Christian Walker, seven pitches, gets him on a 94 mile per hour fastball, get some swinging, and the Orioles take game one, a big game one to have. And then the momentum traveled into Saturday, where the O's gut through an 11-inning win. Terrific show of character by the Orioles in this game. It started with Trevor Rogers, who just went out there and pitched his you know what off. I mean, second half of the season, great way to start it for uh Trevor Rogers. Sure, did give up a run in the bottom of the seventh. You know, or you know, run was credited to him in the bottom of the seventh on the game tying sackbunt from Nick Allen. But aside from that, Rodgers was great. Went the six and a third, gave up the run on seven hits, struck out eight, walked one, um, and the Orioles, you know, we got it to extras, and let's face it, Jeremiah Jackson, a terrific way to use how many times have we seen it? Runners at the corners, extra innings, and the Orioles don't bunt. They bunt here with Jackson, who's, you know, obviously when he's up there, he's looking to hit a tape deck home run, but instead, with them at the corners, nobody out. He brings home uh Leody Tavares. Unfortunately, in the bottom of the tenth, though, Jordan Alvarez, a RBI double off Kittridge, and you know, when it's in that situation in the tenth, and when you're the home team, and you get a double in that situation with nobody out, it's I mean second and third with nobody out. And somehow, you know, with Paredes able to reach on the Gunnar Henderson throwing error then after to load the bases, and you get the double play at home by Tyler O'Neal. Somehow, some way, you get two outs, and then Lamont Wade, you know, tries to bunt and instead bunts it back to Kittredge, who's able to get the third out of the inning to Pete. Heroics by the Orioles, and the same thing as yesterday. You know, like Sanders being able to get through and navigate through that bottom of the seventh with two away. For them to be able to, and with two outs, mind you, Tyler O'Neal, RBI single, Leody Taveras, RBI single for two, Orioles then win after Cam Sanders comes in and does a fantastic, fantastic job picking up his first save. And uh, I mean, a gutsy 11 inning game, one of the best all year by the O's. And here was Craig Albanes afterwards talking to the media.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yeah, he was outstanding. Um efficient, on a ton of strikes. Sammy did a great job of navigating that lineup, both with Raj and the bullpen. But yeah, Raj was on the strike zone, changeup was great, great use of both both breaking balls. And he did, I mean, credit to him. He wanted to stay out there. I had to prime off the mound a little bit, you know. So, and that's the type of competitor he is, and yeah, that was an outstanding stuff for us. Wins like this, like it's it's tough to win these games, and especially against a ball club like Houston and the players they have and the pitches they have, and like it was yeah. It's one of those wins where we checked up, not checked the box, but we know we can have that grindy game, and it it was fun to be a part of, and it was just really proud of the guys and that in the and that dug out in that club also.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

You know, to say that Tyler O'Neill's time as a member of the Baltimore Orioles has left a lot to be desired would be I think a factual statement. But give him credit. These last two weeks he has shown up. He's shown up a little bit with the bat, and then obviously with that double play, uh play at the plate, just a tremendous job by Tyler O'Neill, Sammy Basal up, fist pumping. Uh O'Neal, who did a front flip actually on the throw home to Basal. And really, you know, you talk about the throw, the tag by Sammy B was really good as well. I mean, it was on a rope to him, but he catches it rearing back and is able to nab the runner at the plate. Just a huge job by the both of them to be able to get Nick Allen out at home. And the Orioles, they take the series on Saturday and an opportunity to sweep Sunday. And that's exactly what they did Sunday. Again, utilizing small ball, utilizing the fact that you don't need to hit 500-foot, you know, three-run homers when you're the when no one's at the you know, when no one's on base, that old adage. You know, Gunner with the RBI single, Peak gets on, they double steal. Gunner comes home, 2-0. Um they're in the second. Now, sure, Jordan Alvarez, or rather in the third, and then in the bottom of the third, sure, Jordan Alvarez hits an RBI double off of Brandon Young, who pitched really well, but that's just it. Brandon Young silenced them in that game through seven, gave up a run on five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk. Now, mind you, Samuel Basal, whom you know started the game at catcher, leaves early, and they have to go to Huff. And give the credit to Brandon Young with the backup catcher Sam Huffin, that he was able, because it's not an easy thing to do, you know, or cannot be an easy thing to do, although he was able to do it. He was able to get through it. And I'm sure that's a lot of confusion for a pitcher, and especially a young pitcher. Your battery mate goes down, a guy that you obviously have a lot of confidence throwing to, and then he got to go to Sam Huff, and Sam Huff was obviously able to navigate it through with him, and they were able to uh pick up the 5-2 win. Kobe Mayo, 13th homer of the year. Listen, all this guy does is hit home runs. All Kobe Mayo really has been doing is, you know, he's hitting sub-200. He's a Walmart 22 and 23 version of Kyle Schwarber from the right-handed side of the plate, and I say that uh with um with love in a way, because when you're hitting at the bottom of the lineup, obviously if you had a better batting average, you'd be higher in the lineup, so you have to find a way to come through, and he has, against left-handed pitching, been able to come through um throughout a majority of the season, which is obviously a credit to him, although, as I said, against left-handed pitching, you know, usually he comes through. Um you gotta figure out against against righties, too, because you know, if you want to be an everyday player in this league, you gotta do it. And he hits another homer off uh a lefty there in King. And they did start him against a righty in Hunter Brown, so you know, obviously for the time being, you don't have Blaze Alexander. Um they didn't go with Jeremiah Jackson at the hot corner, you know, the way that the way that it looks like Craig Albanaz maybe taking a different approach now, as I I don't know. It's one series, we'll see what happens as they as obviously you welcome Boston in. But how will he manage the lineup differently than maybe what they were doing earlier in the year? I'm gonna be curious to see how that factors because is he gonna look to platoon a lot more? Is he gonna look to get guys seeing as many pitches as he can with both pitchers? We'll see. It'll be interesting as well. But here was Craig after the Oriol sweep on Sunday, and also providing an injury update to Sammy B and even Adley Rutchman.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Yeah, it was uh a really good series, well-played series. BY was outstanding today. Um I mean, our pitching staff as a whole had one walk. BY was real efficient. Attacking the strike zone had all of his pitches working. Uh yeah, it was really a really fun outing to watch him do his thing, and then you know, Rico and Wolfie were outstanding too. And you know, offense was it was fun to watch with, you know, a few hit and runs, stone bases, play a little small ball, you know, and then you know, obviously with Leo with uh a big hit and you know Beaver's had a night's game as well. Yeah, right shoulder discomfort. Um it's just been a lingering thing, and then obviously it just aggravated uh left wrist left wrist discomfort. So he was, you know, we wanted to avoid him today, was unavailable, and you know, Huffy did an outstanding job of coming in and the second inning and navigating that game, and you know, it just speaks to how well he's prepared and you know what he can bring behind the plate. It's always an outstanding job by Huffy today.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

You know, I saw someone say this the other day, and it's so true. The Orioles could have one of the best in terms of a one-two punch at catcher with Adley Rutchman and Samuel Basayo, they could have the best in baseball. But the problem is they're just not healthy enough in order to for that sentiment to be set in its fullest, and that's a real shame because that that really is a very valuable thing that not a lot of teams have, where they have two catchers that could start for really, I think about twenty-five or twenty-six of major league teams out there. I mean, really. You know, you could name, like, you know, the Braves. You look at them, you could, you know, name the the Red Sox and the Brewers and a couple other teams here and there that have really dominant catchers in the in the bigs, but and would probably confidently say, uh, you know, we're good with who we have. But there are the rest of the teams in Major League Baseball that I'm sure would pick up the phone if Samuel Basal or Adley Rutschman were to be offered. Not saying obviously that they would be, but just if that case were to come up, um, God forbid. Uh but you know, and and I'm not saying suggesting that the Orioles trade Samuel Basayo or Adley Rutschman, don't confuse me there, but if they ever did, that would be the situation where you'd have so many teams calling you up looking to add a catcher. Now, what's next? Well, what's next is, as I mentioned earlier, a juggernaut right now of the Boston Red Sox, the hottest team in baseball, 50-48, riding a 13-game win streak, looking to make it 14-15 and 16 this weekend at home for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway. Uh the O's who traveled to Fenway earlier in the season. Uh, so you know, obviously there's some familiarity there. Uh Red Sox who just finished sweeping the race for four games out of the All-Star break. They swept the Mets for three, they swept the White Sox and the Angels, and you know, it was the four-game sweep at home against the New York Yankees. It just seems like, now I know they followed that up with, you know, losing uh two of three on the road to the Nationals, but I mean that series against the Yankees seemed to really jolt this team. Uh the Oriol took two of three from the Red Sox at Camden Yards to end April, and then uh the Red Sox would then return the favor, taking two of three in early June against the O's, and now hopefully with the season series tied at three apiece, hopefully the Orioles can go out there and take hold of the season series tiebreaker against the Red Sox, who of who again hold the final spot in the wild card right now. Now here we go. Starting pitching preview. Let's get into it. It'll be Peyton Tolley on the mound for Boston, five and six with a 3-1-1 ERA. He pitched seven shutout innings in June against the O's earlier this year, allowed seven hits, two walks with his five strikeouts. So that's the numbers there for Tole. Uh should be an interesting matchup for Shane Baz to hit the hill tonight for Boston. His first start since the All-Star Break. Felt like going into the All-Star break. He was kind of teetering after being so solid throughout June. We'll see what he looks like tonight. 4-9 with a 4-1-9 ERA. Last month against Boston, though, he did go seven innings at Fenway, allowed just two runs on four hits. And, you know, he has pitched extremely well on the road this year. And I'm excited to see what he'll look like tonight in his first start back. Tomorrow, it's TBD, but they're saying it could be Ranger Suarez, who could be activated off the 15-day IL with a groin injury. Four and three at the 3-1-5 this year is Ranger. He allowed five runs on nine hits and six and a third innings last year versus the O's. The only time he's really faced the bulk of this Orioles lineup throughout the year, uh, throughout, you know, the last couple of years. Last time would have previous two times have been twenty-four and twenty-three, but With the turnover in the lineup. Last year is the most amount of Orioles facers, Orioles hitters that he faced on this current team. So that's why we went with the numbers from last year. Now Kyle Braddish takes the hill for the O's. 6-9 with a 3-6-1 ERA, allowed three runs on four hits and five innings with four walks and three strikeouts earlier this year against Boston. So let's see what KB can do. Who, of course, inked a five-year, $90 million contract extension. Certainly, in my opinion, I think it's a little bit of a bargain that they that they got KB for. Because listen, this guy at one point in time felt like he was going to one day hopefully be the ace of this staff and one of the best starters, hopefully, in the game. And, you know, with the Tommy John surgery two years ago, missing a majority of last year, and then this year being a little rocky. Hopefully he figures that situation out, and then this deal is really a bargain for the O's. Game three on Wednesday. We'll see Jake Bennett take them out. 5-3 at the 2-3-5 ERA. Second round pick. Made his debut this year. The starting staff for Boston has actually been pretty solid this year. Really, what's been killing him, them, has just been their, I think, consistency offensively. Now he's 3-2 with the 2-5-7 ERA this year in five starts. He's gone at least five and then into the sixth and four out of those five starts. So let's see what he looks like on Wednesday against the Scorials team that will ha send Dean Kramer to the mound. One and two with a four-one five ERA. He hasn't been now it's in just two starts. But on the road, ten innings for him this year, giving up five runs on six hits, twelve strikeouts, now it's two starts. Now, first game was against Cleveland. This was before the injury that sidelined him throughout the majority of the year to this point. That was in April, and then on for this past Friday against Houston. So it's a little bit of a juggling act when you kind of look at it. But this start against the Sox, no doubt about it, you're going up against the hottest team in baseball, and you'd like to think maybe the Orioles have a chance to win this series on Wednesday. So it's going to be uh definitely it's gonna be very interesting to see how he approaches this start against Boston and obviously how he performs. But what a start to the second half for the Orioles, ladies and gentlemen, on a seven-game win streak. This Orioles team is giv has given you a reason to, I think, pay attention again. And I think pay attention in a way that's not just uh, well, you know, they're within five games, if they can just get lucky or there. No, they are right there. They are within striking distance for that wild card spot. Now it's just a matter of them taking control of what they can take control of and go out there and hopefully take two of three from the Sox, because listen, if they do that, if they take two of three, and they're fifty-one and fifty-two, and the Sox are, you know, fifty-one in fifty, sure you don't overtake them. But if you can get the Mariners to lose uh, you know, their series when they're going up against the well, they're going up against the Reds at home, and Mariners have been a lot better on um at home than they have been on the road, so that's not necessarily gonna give you a ton of confidence, but you keep in you keep on pace with them. And and maybe the Reds get their season going or try to get their season going, you know, who knows what could happen. Um but hopefully, you know, the Orioles continue their hot momentum. And I mean, hey, if they do the unthinkable and they sweep the Red Sox and they're 52 and 51, then you're really looking at the possibilities of holding that final wild card spot in the middle of the week. But we'll see what the Orioles do. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll talk to you throughout the series, and of course, we'll be back on to recap it coming up on Wednesday. We'll talk to you then.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Something magic happens every time you go, you make the magic happen. Magic of Orioles baseball when the game is closed. And the yokes are high. That's a thunder record from the thirty four to give it all away.