Mullins' early big hit helps O's offense break out at Boston

As the Orioles offense broke out tonight and they won the final game of a three-game series, a somewhat unlikely source had an early big hit.

It was center fielder Cedric Mullins. It's not that he had been hitting poorly; he had not. But Mullins had struggled this year as a right-handed batter facing lefties. However, his two-run, bases-loaded double tonight was a key hit that gave the Orioles an early 3-0 lead in the second inning. They went on to beat Boston 13-1 to avoid being swept three in a row.

It was a nice breakout for an offense that had scored four runs in the first two games of this series and one run or less nine times in the past 14 games. The club scored 38 runs in those 14 games, with 14 coming in one game.

Mullins began tonight just 5-for-34 with one extra-base hit in 36 plate appearances off lefties this season. His slash line was .147/.194/.235 against southpaws. Very different than the /308/.357/.396 line he had put up versus right-handed pitchers. And he was facing Boston lefty Martín Pérez, who was 1-0 with a 2.78 ERA in four September starts. Right-handers had hit just .225 off Pérez in 2020.

The O's second began when Austin Hays doubled and moved to third on Pat Valaika's single. Both had three hits last night and they got a big O's inning going. Rio Ruiz singled in Hays for a 1-0 lead and Valaika took third. A walk to Ramón Urías loaded the bases for Mullins.

Mullins fell behind in the count 1-2, but worked the count full. He then drilled a Pérez sinker to left for his two-bagger and a 3-0 Baltimore lead. Mullins drilled that ball 98 mph to produce his seventh and eighth RBIs. Mullins also had a sac bunt in the O's three-run fourth, which led to a run on Hanser Alberto's sac fly as they opened a 6-0 lead.

The Orioles gave Pérez an early shower and a good run of Boston starting pitching came to a crashing halt. Pérez allowed nine hits and six runs over four innings on 82 pitches. Boston starters were 4-1 with an ERA of 0.84 and a .204 average against over the previous six games. In their last 17 games, they pitched to an ERA of 2.89.

Ruiz, who had two doubles in the first game of this series, went 3-for-5 tonight with two more doubles and two RBIs, as the Orioles had 16 hits. José Iglesias hit a solo homer in the fourth as the Orioles built an early 8-0 lead. Valaika hit a solo shot in the seventh for the Orioles. It was No. 8 for Valaika. Hays hit a solo homer in the ninth off infielder Tzu-Wei Lin, who pitched the last inning for Boston and also gave up a two-run double to Alberto.

The Orioles went 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position tonight, had 18 hits and had four players with multi-RBI games.

Winning pitcher Alex Cobb allowed just one run over seven innings to improve to 2-5 with an ERA of 4.30. Cobb's seven-inning outing tied the start of Jorge López on Sept. 14 versus Atlanta for longest of the year. Cobb's first win of the year came in the first series at Fenway Park and that is where he got No. 2 tonight.

By winning tonight, the O's avoided falling into a fourth-place tie with Boston. Now, with three games to play, they are 24-33 and Boston is 22-35. The O's head to Buffalo for three games with Toronto to end the 2020 season.