The Orioles keep mashing home runs. After hitting two more in Saturday's 6-5 victory over Teas, they have hit 14 homers in their past five games, 29 in the last 13 games with a team OPS of .901 in that span and 60 homers in 28 games this month.

They have homered in 27 of 28 games this month and as of pregame Saturday led the majors with a team slugging percentage of .523 in June. They were second to the Mets in team OPS this month at .857 and were second to the Mets in runs per game in June at 5.75 (with the Mets at 6.43).

Their most homer-happy player this month is Anthony Santander who hit another homer last night. He has 13 in June where his batting line is .274/.325/.670/.995.

Santander said the powerful O’s lineup is helping each hitter in that lineup one through nine.

“It’s great having a deep lineup. It’s awesome,” he said this week. “Over 162 games you can’t have everyone hitting every game. Sometimes we see the bottom of our order carrying it.”

In their first series against each other since Texas swept the Orioles last October in the American League Division Series, the Orioles have beaten Texas 11-2 and 2-1 the last two nights to begin this four-game series.

After losing five in a row to Houston and Cleveland, the Orioles (52-30) have won their past three games.

During the five losses, Baltimore pitching allowed 40 runs with a team ERA of 7.71 and OPS against of .936 in those games. The team ERA increased from 3.13 to 3.40 for the year.

During the past three wins, Baltimore pitchers have allowed five total runs with a team ERA of 1.67 and a .582 OPS. The team ERA is down to 3.34. That ERA ranks first in the American League and is third-best in the majors behind Philadelphia (3.04) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (3.27).

The O's three-game win streak has come by a combined 17-5 score. The Orioles are now 8-11 in one-run games and, after last night, 3-15 when they score two runs or fewer. They are 28-16 at home and 16-11 in June.

The Texas Rangers were trying to come from two runs down and the wildness of the O’s bullpen gave them a great chance. They had cut the O's 2-0 lead to 2-1 in the seventh inning and a key batter, leadoff hitter Marcus Semien, batted with the bases loaded and two outs.

O’s righty Jacob Webb threw him a 2-2 fastball and he hit it hard toward third base. Ramón Urías, the 2022 American League Gold Glove winner at third base, made a nice play to his backhand side and thew out Semien. The ball was hit 96.5 mph off the bat and Statcast gave it an expected batting average of .530.

But the Rangers were turned away.

In a game the Orioles would go on to win 2-1, it was a solid defensive play. And a key one. Actual batting average on the play was .000.

“Yeah. Big play right there,” Urías said in the postgame clubhouse. “Just tried to stay calm. Know the situation and know your runner and I think the main thing is just stay calm.”

The Orioles are nearing the end of a stretch of playing 30 games in 31 days since May 31. Even with the recent five-game losing steak, the team is 16-11 (.593) in this span with three games left in this series with Texas remaining before Monday's off-day to end this grueling span.

The Orioles have won series in this difficult stretch versus the Rays (twice), Braves, Phillies and Yankees. They split a four-game set in Toronto and lost series to the Astros and Guardians.

The six teams that would qualify for the American League playoffs if the season ended today are the Orioles, Yankees, Guardians, Mariners, Twins and Royals. The Birds are 6-1 in series against those clubs, going 15-7 overall.

In the first game between the Orioles and Rangers since Texas swept three in a row last October in the AL Division Series, the O's won 11-2, hitting four homers. Right-hander Corbin Burnes got the win on the mound, allowing one run over seven innings to now be 9-3 with a 2.28 ERA. He has 11 quality starts in his past 12 games with an ERA of 2.09 over that stretch.

Jordan Westburg's two-run double in the first gave the Orioles a 3-0 lead. Heston Kjerstad hit a two-run homer in the third and Cedric Mullins hit a two-run shot an inning later. The O's got solo homers from Adley Rutschman in the seventh and Colton Cowser in the eighth.

As Orioles ace pitcher right-hander Corbin Burnes (9-3, 2.28 ERA) went on the paternity list today, it opened an opportunity for Triple-A lefty reliever Matt Krook to join the team.

Manager Brandon Hyde said Burnes will rejoin the team for Tuesday’s game at Seattle and then they will map out his next start. Today Krook was called from Norfolk to take his roster spot. A player can be on the paternity list for up to three games.

For now, Krook arrives for the first time on the O’s roster. At 29, Krook has spent a lot of time in the minors since being drafted in round four in 2016 by San Francisco.

His first chance at the majors came in four games for the Yankees in 2023 and he allowed 11 runs over four innings, pitching in games in June, July and September.

He was designated for assignment by New York on Feb. 13 of this year and traded five days later to Baltimore for cash considerations. This year at Triple-A Norfolk, he has gone 2-2 with a 3.71 ERA in 26 games over 26 2/3 innings with 17 walks, 31 strikeouts, a .200 average against and 1.35 WHIP.

The Orioles' Gunnar Henderson has always been able to impact a game with five tools, and the speed element of that is on greater display during the 2024 season.

He might have to pick up the pace a bit in the stolen-base department, but Henderson has a chance to become the second Oriole - Cedric Mullins did it in 2021 - to hit 30 or more homers and steal at least 30 bases in one season.

Henderson is running more this year, is very comfortable swiping bags and now has a manager willing to give him a green light to go more than ever.

He began last night second in the AL in homers (26), slugging (.618) and OPS (1.005), but also tied for 13^th in the league with 13 steals. He is 13-for-14 this year after stealing 10 bases in 13 attempts all of last year.

Has he just made a concerted effort to run more this year?

They ended the Orioles 2023 season in the American League Division Series with a three-game sweep. Tonight the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers come to Camden Yards to start a four-game set. The stakes are very different in a regular season game after Texas posted wins by 3-2, 11-8 and 7-1 over the Orioles to advance last October.

The teams are having very different seasons as well. The Orioles (50-30) will reach the season's halfway point tonight and are just one game behind the first-place Yankees in the American League East.

The Rangers, who also beat Tampa Bay before last year's AL Division Series and Houston and Arizona after it on their way to the title, are only 37-43 at the 80-game mark. They are in third in the AL West and 7 1/2 games behind division-leading Seattle.

Texas was just swept three straight at Milwaukee by 6-3, 3-1 and 6-5 scores. The Rangers have also lost eight of their past 12 games and are just 8-13 since June 3. The Rangers were 21-16 on May 7, but have gone 16-27 since that point.

The Rangers have also lost six in a row on the road, are 5-16 their past 21 road games and are just 4-10 their past 14 series, home and road.

Orioles' catcher Adley Rutschman was a Silver Slugger winner at the end of the 2023 season. One where he finished with 20 homers and 80 RBIs. But this season his production has gotten better and he’s on pace for 28 homers and 107 RBIs.

He has elevated his slugging and OPS production even as his walk rate came down. Earlier this year it was way down. He’s started to draw more walks recently and maybe that is a result of pitchers be more careful with a hitter who had an OPS of .806 in 2022 and .809 in 2023 and that is now .820. His slugging percentage this season is .470 after it was .445 in 2022 and .435 last year.

To simplify it, Rutschman has been more aggressive at bat this year and his walk rate early on dropped big time. But it's climbing back up now, and he is showing all his talents as a hitter with recent games of two homers and another with five hits.

He is seeing fewer pitches per plate appearance and his walk rate, which was 13.8 in 2022 and 13.4 last year is now 7.4. That walk rate was lower than that earlier this year, but Rutschman, who has walked 25 times this year, has drawn 11 of those in the last 14 games, a span where his on-base percentage is .394.

“I don’t think there was any specific decree to Adley, ‘we need you to do more.’ That is pretty tough to ask a guy who just won a Silver Slugger to do more,” O’s offensive strategy coach Cody Asche said on Sunday. “It was kind of the way the season started (with less walks). Guys do things different for one reason or another, you know, maybe you see guys are attacking you differently and that’s just the way things go.

During a five-game losing streak, the Orioles have allowed 40 runs and lost games where they scored eight and eleven runs. So Captain Obvious said the pitching must improve as they host Cleveland tonight in the series finale.

After getting swept once all year - from May 20 to 22 at St. Louis - a loss tonight would secure back-to-back series the O's have been swept. 

The Orioles (49-30) hit the 80-game mark tonight and begin play two games behind the New York Yankees (52-29). At 51-26, the Guardians have the best record in the American League and second-best in the majors behind the Phillies. The Yankees have the AL's second-best record and the Orioles have the third-best.

The Orioles have been outscored 40-23 during the losing streak and their team ERA is 7.71 in this stretch. Baltimore's starting pitchers have gone eight straight games without a quality start. In that span, the rotation ERA is 7.26 with a WHIP of 1.789. O's starters pitched five innings or less in six of the eight games.

In the past four games, O's batters have gone 2-for-24 batting with runners in scoring position. For the year, the O's are batting .262 when hitting with RISP to rank seventh-best in the American League. Their team OPS of .783 with RISP is fourth-best in the AL.

The Orioles losing streak reached five last night with another night of getting a short and ineffective outing from a starting pitcher. Over these five games the Orioles have allowed 40 runs.

With the Orioles and just about every other contending team in the majors in the market for starting pitching, it is natural to think about Chicago White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet.

The Orioles got an in-person look at the hard-throwing strikeout machine on May 26 at Guaranteed Rate Field. They got two runs off him over six innings, but he fanned 11 Orioles that day.

He looks great – both in person and on the stat sheet. He is under team control through the 2026 season so a team trading for him will have him for this year and two more.

That means the trade price may be extremely high. The O’s may have a farm system where they could be a good trade partner with Chicago. Someone I talked to recently who knows the trade winds better than most, thought the O’s could be in the hunt for Crochet in giving up only one of their top prospects. They would not need two of their premier prospects. But yeah, one big name would likely have to go in a bigger package of players.

The Orioles have lost four in a row and been outscored 30-15 during the season's longest losing streak. Cleveland has won six in a row and outscored their opponents 36-14 during their win streak.

After losing their homestand opener 3-2 to Cleveland last night, the O's could use a win tonight, which would end both streaks.

Cleveland's win streak is not even its longest of this year. The Guardians won nine in a row from May 17-26.

At 50-26 (.658), Cleveland has the best win percentage in the American League and leads second-place Minnesota by a season-high eight games in the American League Central. Their record is second-best in the majors to Philadelphia at 52-26 (.667).

The Guardians are 11-6 this year against AL East teams, going 1-2 versus New York, 5-2 against Boston, 4-2 versus Toronto and 1-0 against Baltimore. 

One way to show statistically how good the Orioles' offense has been this year is to look at the numbers from Monday morning, after back-to-back games when the team scored one run each.

The Orioles still led the majors in runs per game heading into last night’s game and by a big margin. Heading into the Guardians series, the Orioles were scoring 5.23 runs per game and Phillies were second at 5.06.

The Orioles and Guardians (5.05 runs per game) are the only two American League teams averaging 5.00 or better runs per game as of game time Monday. Baltimore led the majors in homers, slugging and extra-base hits. They also ranked first in the AL and second to the Dodgers in team OPS.

The team has three hitting coaches and they seem to work very well together as a well-oiled machine in getting hitters prepared. Prepared so much so that recently they hammered aces like Zack Wheeler and Luis Gil. No, they didn’t hit every quality starter, but they have held their own most nights.

As for their titles, Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte are listed as co-hitting coaches while Cody Asche is listed as offensive strategy coach.

After losing three games over the weekend at Houston and getting swept for the second time this year by a combined 27-13 score, the Orioles are back at home tonight. They host the Cleveland Guardians in the opening game of a three-game series and seven-game homestand.

The Orioles (49-28, .636) have the third-best record in the American League and begin play tonight 1.5 games back of the division-leading New York Yankees.

When they faced the Phillies, they held the best record in the National League and the Yankees were atop the AL when the O's played them in New York. Tonight they host a Cleveland team that at 49-26 (.653) currently holds the best record in the AL and second-best in the majors behind Philadelphia.

Cleveland has won five in a row over Seattle and Toronto by a combined 33-12 score. Cleveland batters clubbed 12 homers and batted hit .273 in the win streak with a team OPS of .899 while scoring 6.6 runs per game.

Cleveland has scored at least six runs in each of those five wins. The last time the team won five consecutive games with at least six runs in each was in July 2019, last doing so in six straight in May 2018.

HOUSTON - In baseball, you are riding high one day and not the next. Or you have plenty of momentum and you are winning series against two of baseball's best teams one day and getting swept by a team starting to play well again the next.

When the Orioles rallied from 11 runs down to get within three late in the game at Houston Friday night, we were marveling at this team's effort and fight and ability to come back even when down double digits runs.

Now two losses later - games that were not close at the end - we are left wondering if the Orioles are a tired team? If they are now suddenly having pitching issues and if the injuries finally caught up to them?

The real question to answer here - and it may take days, weeks or even longer to begin to figure out - is has this team hit a bump in the road or a real big pothole? Is this just a few losses or the beginning of a longer downward trend? Are the Orioles not as good as they looked just, what seemed like hours ago?

My guess is this too shall pass, and this club will return to winning soon. They have bounced back so many times the last couple of years, what is another?

HOUSTON – A recent run of strong starts during an overall good season for right-hander Albert Suárez hit a speed bump in New York a few days ago. Today in Houston, it was quite a bumpy ride again for the hurler who took an ERA of 1.61 into that start at Yankee Stadium.

He allowed three runs and walked five in 3 2/3 innings in the Bronx. He was much more around the plate today, maybe in the zone too much early on as the Astros came out swinging against him.

Houston scored four runs on six hits in the last of the first this afternoon and rode that big inning to a 8-1 win behind 15 hits and a solid outing by left-hander Framber Valdez as they sweep this three-game series.

The O’s hit town riding high, coming off Thursday’s 17-5 victory and series win at Yankee Stadium. They had gone 14-6 the previous 20 games with series wins over the Rays, Braves, Phillies and Yankees but didn’t win once this weekend at Minute Maid Park.

At 49-28, they are swept for the second time this year (also May 20-22 at St. Louis) and head home to host Cleveland on Monday night.

HOUSTON - After their series win at Yankee Stadium produced such good vides, the game of baseball struck back at the Orioles this weekend in Houston. They were 11 runs behind on Friday night and held to one run and four hits Saturday as they lost by 14-11 and 5-1 scores.

The Orioles (49-27) were not swept for 106 consecutive regular-season series, a run that ended when they were swept last month at St. Louis. A loss today and they will have been swept twice in the past 10 series.

Between the two series they played very good baseball, going 4-0 in Chicago against the White Sox, 2-1 in each of two home series versus Boston and Tampa Bay, and then 2-2 in Toronto and 4-0 at Tampa Bay. The club then went 2-1 against Atlanta and Philadelphia and in New York against the Yankees.

They went 7-0-1 in eight series since St. Louis but need a win today to avoid their second 0-3 series of the year.

The Orioles had scored 28 runs in two games, 35 in three and 51 in their past six until they were shut down by righty Ronel Blanco and two relievers on Saturday.

HOUSTON – As the Orioles look to salvage one game in their three-game series at Houston and avoid being swept today, they face a tough lefty in Houston’s Framber Valdez (5-5, 3.91 ERA).

He finished 11^th for the American League Cy Young Award in 2020, was fifth in 2022 and ninth last year.

In these past two years he has gone 29-17 with a 3.13 ERA over 399 1/3 innings. But in those two years, as he has had high Cy Young vote finishes, he faced the Orioles once each season and they fared well against him. In the two games, they scored 13 runs off Valdez (10 earned) in a combined 12 1/3 innings.

In an interview with local media today, O’s offensive strategy coach Cody Asche talked about the challenge of facing Valdez today and how the O’s batters might approach it.

“I think a lot of our guys will kind of lean on their experiences last year," he said. " I thought we had really good at-bats last year at Camden. And I think even two years ago, we kind of ended that quality-starts streak against him.

HOUSTON – When Orioles right-hander Albert Suárez took the mound to face the New York Yankees on Tuesday night, he was a pitcher on a real roll.

He was 3-0 with a 1.61 ERA and had an ERA of 1.08 over his previous nine games. He had been big for the Orioles, both out of the bullpen and in the rotation.

But that night in the Bronx was not his normal day.

He walked five Yankees and gave up three runs over 3 2/3 innings as the Orioles lost the series opener. It was his shortest start of the season and a season high in walks.

As he got ready to make his next start, which comes today at Houston, Suárez felt what went wrong in that game in New York can be a quick fix.

HOUSTON – Right-hander Corbin Burnes had been everything the O’s hoped for this year and maybe more. He had 10 straight quality starts coming into today’s outing and his 2.14 ERA ranked tied for first in the American League and tied for third-best in the major leagues. 

And today it’s not like the Houston Astros hit him that hard. But they did do something no other team could do against him this year. They got him for two homers.

That led Houston, which also got a strong pitching effort from right-hander Ronel Blanco, to beat the Orioles 5-1 today at Minute Maid Park in front of 37,107.

The Birds, now 49-27, would suffer a sweep with a loss tomorrow. From 2016-2019, the Orioles went 1-11 in Houston. But since the 2021 season they were 7-2 at Minute Maid Park when this series started. 

The O’s offense slowed after it put up 28 runs in the previous two games, 35 in the last three and 51 in the past six. The O’s began today leading the majors in scoring at 5.35 runs per game.

HOUSTON - Coming off a 14-11 loss Friday in which O's pitching allowed a season-high 14 runs and saw its team ERA jump from 3.13 to 3.28, it's a good time today to send their ace pitcher to the mound. 

They do just that as right-hander Corbin Burnes (8-2, 2.14 ERA) makes his 16th start. Burnes begins today tied for first in the American League in ERA with Boston's Tanner Houck.

But heading into this outing, Burnes has a streak of 10 straight quality starts riding. In that span he is 5-2 with a 1.85 ERA and .561 OPS against since April 26.

The Orioles are 11-4 when Burnes starts, winning his last six games in a row.

In his past four games Burnes has allowed, in order, zero, one, zero and two earned runs. In those games he is 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA and a .190 batting average against.