Keegan Akin delivers latest strong start for the Orioles

So much for a first-inning knockout. Orioles lefty Keegan Akin bounced back tonight in a big way from his early exit Friday night at Yankee Stadium. He set a career high with nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings and picked up his first career win as the Orioles beat Atlanta 5-1 to win the three-game series.

It was the latest strong outing by Akin and the latest for an O's rotation that is making a nice late-season kick. Akin allowed three singles and walked one. He pitched out of jams twice in improving to 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA.

Akin's defense greatly contributed to his early exit in New York when he allowed four runs in 2/3 of an inning on 39 pitches. Tonight he threw 25 in the first but struck out Dansby Swanson on a high fastball at 93 mph to get out of the inning and strand two runners.

That strikeout started a run of six consecutive strikeouts by Akin, which is one off an O's team record. So he fanned the last batter of the first, struck out the side on 12 pitches in the second and got the first two batters of the third before Freddie Freeman lined out. He became the first O's pitcher to fan six in a row since John Wasdin on Sept. 30, 2001 at Yankee Stadium. Sammy Stewart set an O's club record fanning seven batters in a row on Sept. 1, 1978 against the Chicago White Sox.

Akin's last out was a big one also. With two on and two out in the fifth and the Orioles leading 3-0 he got Ronald Acuña Jr. to fly out to center field, making him at that point 0-for-9 in this series.

Akin's nine strikeouts are the most by an O's rookie since Dylan Bundy got nine on Aug. 7, 2016 against the Chicago White Sox.

Akin has not allowed an earned run in his three starts outside of the one at New York. In those three games he has pitched 14 2/3 innings, allowing nine hits and two unearned runs with seven walks and 23 strikeouts. Akin picks up win No. 1 in his sixth major league appearance.

O's starting pitchers have now allowed one earned run or none in four of their last five games with a 1.71 ERA in that span. O's starters have allowed one earned run or none in eight of their past 12 games with a 3.26 ERA.

It was an impressive night of swing-and-miss stuff by Akin, who got 19 whiffs from Atlanta batters. He threw 93 pitches, 63 for strikes. Of those pitches he threw 59 fastballs, getting 32 swings and 11 whiffs. He threw 17 sliders, getting six swings and three whiffs. And he threw 17 changeups, getting 12 swings and five whiffs, according to Statcast.

Akin shut down a Braves lineup that began this series leading the majors in team slugging (.488) and OPS (.834) and was scoring 5.94 runs per game. Atlanta scored just seven runs in this series.

The Orioles backed Akin with three runs in the third and a Renato Núñez two-run double in the fifth. Hanser Alberto doubled in a run during the O's third, ending a 19-game drought without a double for the hitter who had 11 in his first 20 games of 2020.

The Orioles are 22-10 when they score four runs or more and 0-17 when they get three or fewer. They are now 22-27 for the season and finished their interleague play tonight with a record of 11-9 against the National League. They host the Rays for a doubleheader tomorrow to begin a five-game, four-day series.