O's game blog: López against Cobb in Anaheim

Their offense put up a big number, scoring seven runs, but the Orioles could not run their win streak to four in a row last night. It would have been a season high.

They lost 8-7 to the Los Angeles Angels in walk-off fashion in the last of the ninth. Shohei Ohtani, who hit two homers earlier in the game, walked, stole second base and scored the winning run when Jared Walsh singled to right to win the game.

Ohtani hit his major league-leading 29th and 30th home runs. He has been on a home run tear and homered for the 10th game in 15 games. He has hit 13 homers in that span. His 30 homers broke a tie with Mike Trout at 28 for most homers by an Angel before the All-Star break. He leads the majors in homers, with three more than Toronto's Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The Orioles' homer leader, Trey Mancini, has half that total.

So last night, Ohtani beat the Orioles with his power and speed.

"He pretty much single-handedly beat us," O's manager Brandon Hyde said after the game via Zoom. "So he's such a good player, I don't know what to say. He's the hottest hitter on the planet right now, and it's not just driving the ball (for) base hits. It's deep home runs. You walk him, he's going to steal second on you. You know, it's plus-plus speed. Plus-plus power. He's locked in. It's extremely challenging to face him and yeah, I mean, he's one of the best players on the planet."

Ohtani's 30 homers are the most before the All-Star Break by an American League player since Aaron Judge hit 30 in 2017. It is Ohtani's third multi-homer game this season and sixth of his career. He is now one home run shy of tying Hideki Matsui's 2004 total for most homers in a season by a Japanese-born player.

The Orioles had taken a 6-2 lead in the third on solo homers by Mancini and Domingo Leyba, who hit his first major league homer in the second inning in his 73rd career plate appearance. In the third, Anthony Santander doubled with the bases loaded to score all three runners and then scored on a Pedro Severino double. But Ohtani and the Angels came back from the four-run deficit.

The Orioles have scored 34 runs in the last four games. They have scored 46 runs their past seven games since being shut out in back-to-back games on June 23 by Houston and June 24 versus Toronto.

Looking for their first four-game win streak since Sept. 4-8, 2020, the O's instead fell to 27-55 overall, 15-29 on the road, 4-4 on this road trip and 5-13 in one-run games. This was the Orioles' third walk-off loss following games on April 18 against Texas and May 11 versus the New York Mets.

The Angels reached the midpoint of their season at 40-41 and improved to 22-19 at home. They actually snapped a three-game home losing streak, but over longer stretches have won seven of 10 and 12 of 17 games at Angels Stadium.

Right-hander Jorge López (2-10, 5.92 ERA) takes the mound tonight for Baltimore. López is tied with Cincinnati's Luis Castillo for the major league lead in losses. The Orioles are 4-12 in López's 2021 starts, losing the last four and eight of nine.

López has allowed five runs in three of his past four starts, going 0-4 with a 7.65 ERA in that span. He has given up a batting average of .353 and an OPS of .991 in this stretch. In his previous seven starts, he had pitched to an ERA of 3.93. In eight road starts, he is 1-6 with a 6.23 ERA and 1.615 WHIP.

Former O's pitcher Alex Cobb (5-3, 5.09 ERA) gets the start for the Angels. Los Angeles acquired him and $10 million from the Orioles on Feb. 2 in the trade that brought Jahmai Jones to the Orioles.

The Angels are 8-3 in Cobb's starts and 5-1 over the last six. For the year, over 53 innings, he allowed 52 hits, but just three home runs. He has a WHIP of 1.302, allowing 8.8 hits per nine and 0.5 homers with 2.9 walks and 10.7 strikeouts.

Cobb pitched to an ERA of 3.78 through May, but is 2-1 with a 7.32 ERA over his last four starts. Even with that ERA, the numbers say he hasn't been hit all that hard during this stretch, allowing a batting average against of .247 and a .678 OPS.