Heading home after a series sweep to end the road trip

The Orioles will certainly take some momentum into their AL East series at home tomorrow night against third-place Toronto. 

They blasted Oakland 12-1 on Sunday to produce their seventh three-game sweep of the year. For those that love run differential, the Orioles outscored the Athletics 28-7 over the weekend.

Gunnar Henderson had four extra-base hits to tie a team record and he became the 11th Oriole in club history to have four in one game. His day included a double in the third, triple in the fourth, solo homer in the seventh and another double in the eighth. He drove in a run with that two-bagger when a single would have given him the cycle.

The other Orioles to have four extra base hits in a game were Charle Lau in 1962, Don Baylor in 1973, Dave Duncan in 1975, Cal Ripken Jr. in 1983, Brady Anderson in 1994 and 1998, Will Clark in 1999, Albert Belle twice in 1999, Chris Richard in 2000, Miguel Tejada in 2004 and 2005 and the last to do it was Melvin Mora on Aug. 17, 2008 against the Tigers with two doubles and two homers.

The Orioles went 6-1 in the season series and scored 57 runs versus Oakland pitching.

The Birds went 6-3 on the road trip, are 41-24 on the road and 23-12 since the All-Star game.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish threw another strong game allowing just two singles over six scoreless with eight strikeouts on 92 pitches. Over his past 12 starts, Bradish has allowed two earned runs or less 10 times and in those dozen games he is 6-4 with a 2.17 ERA.

Bradish lowered his season ERA to 3.03 and now he has enough innings to qualify for AL league leaders. As of last night his ERA ties Geritt Cole for the AL lead. 

O's starting pitchers have now allowed three earned runs or less 19 times in the past 22 games. And in those 19 games the O's starters have an ERA of 2.76.

Yesterday was the sixth time this year the Orioles have scored 12 runs or more in one game and the fourth time they had 17 or more hits. It was the fourth time they won by 11 or more with a 13-run win the most in any game this year.

Another series against Toronto is next: The last time the Orioles played an AL East opponent, they went 3-1 a few weeks ago in Toronto. The trade deadline arrived during that series and they added right-hander Jack Flaherty.

The Orioles have had quite the season against the Blue Jays, going 2-1 at home and 6-1 on the road for an 8-2 record. The Orioles are 17-12 against Toronto since the start of last season. They are 24-14 on the year in AL East games.

But since losing their first two AL East series in early April, they have not lost another one, going 8-0-2 in 10 series. They won eight and tied two, going 1-1 against Tampa Bay in a series and 2-2 at Yankee Stadium in another.

In winning eight of 10 in 2023 against Toronto, the Birds have hit .298 with a team OPS of .821 and they've outscored the Blue Jays 60-31.

The last time they went 11 straight AL East series without losing one was from Aug. 1-Sept. 30, 2012. The Orioles are 22-10 in those last 10 series within the division.

Minor league moves: A few players got word last night that they are being promoted by the Orioles. Right-handed pitcher Trace Bright is moving from High-A Aberdeen to Double-A Bowie. Righty Edgar Portes is moving from Low Single-A Delmarva to Aberdeen. And righty Zach Peek will continue his rehab this week moving from Delmarva to Aberdeen.

Bright, the O's fifth-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft from Auburn, has gone 2-6 with a 4.35 ERA for Aberdeen. He has a 13.83 K rate for the season and his ERA is 3.09 over his past 11 starts.

Portes, 20, from the Dominican Republic, went 5-6 with a 4.24 ERA in 23 games with the Shorebirds. He produced an 11.83 K rate and pitched four scoreless innings on Sunday with eight strikeouts.

Peek allowed one earned run in two innings in two rehab games thus far. He pitched well last year with an ERA of 3.57 in 11 Double-A games. But he had Tommy John surgery last August and is now beginning his comeback with game action.  

Speaking of Bowie, the Baysox had a dramatic 7-6 win in 13 innings on Sunday. Catcher Silas Ardoin homered in the ninth to force extra innings. Then, down by two runs in the 13th, his RBI double pulled Bowie within 6-5. Greg Cullen's two-run homer gave the Baysox the walk-off win. Bowie is 25-20 in the second half and is one game out of a playoff berth in the Eastern League.