O's game blog: It's Bradish against Cobb in Game 2 at Oracle Park

SAN FRANCISCO – With their latest series-opening victory and road trip win secured, the Orioles play at Oracle Park again tonight looking for a series victory over the San Francisco Giants.

Baltimore scored twice in the second inning last night – on Ryan O’Hearn’s RBI single and Jorge Mateo’s swinging bunt hit – for a 2-1 lead on right-hander Logan Webb, who entered fifth in the National League in ERA.

After the Giants (28-29) tied the game, the Orioles (36-21) gained the lead on Webb again on Gunnar Henderson’s blast to right field in the top of the seventh. The ball, which appeared headed for McCovey’s Cove, came up short of that and ended up in the back of the stands, but it was a huge homer for the 21-year-old Henderson.

He drilled a 2-1 changeup 410 feet with an exit velocity of 110.7 mph. Since he had a .659 OPS to end April, Henderson has a .765 OPS since the start of May. His OPS for the year is now .716, making it exactly league average, and his OPS+ is 100 on the dot. He has seven RBIs his past nine games.

The Orioles improved to 19-9 in road games and to 11-4 in the last 15 away from Oriole Park, to 14-5 in series-opening games and to 11-6 in one-run games. The Orioles have won 27 of their past 41 and 30 of the last 45.

They are now 10-9 all-time against San Francisco. This is their first trip here since the 2016 season. The Orioles are 6-3 in 2023 versus National League clubs.

Baltimore has now played 57 games, with 51 decided by four runs or fewer. That is tied with the Los Angeles Angels for the most such games in the major leagues, and the Orioles are 33-18 (.647) in those games for the most wins and best winning percentage in such games.

The O’s snapped Webb’s streak of seven straight games allowing two earned runs or fewer, and he had gone 33 consecutive innings without allowing a homer until Henderson connected. It was Webb's first homer given up since May 9.

Austin Hays got the two-run second inning started with his 14^th double of the year. His .310 batting average is tied for third-best in the American League and ranks tied for eighth in the majors.

O’Hearn is batting .296 with two homers and eight RBIs since being recalled to the majors from Triple-A Norfolk on May 9.

Tonight right-hander Kyle Bradish (2-1, 3.89 ERA) will make his 10^th start of this season. The Orioles are 6-3 in his outings, the latest of which came Sunday, when he allowed four hits and one run over 6 2/3 innings against Texas.

Bradish, who has four quality starts, is 1-0 with a 2.22 ERA his past four starts for the Orioles. In that span he's allowed six earned runs over 24 1/3 innings.

Orioles starting pitchers have allowed just 11 earned runs the past six games and recorded four quality starts and a 3.13 ERA. Baltimore has 11 quality starts the last 23 games and 18 for the season, going 15-3 in those games.

Right-hander Alex Cobb, an Oriole from 2018 through 2020, faces one of his former clubs tonight. Cobb is 4-2 with a 3.05 ERA in 11 starts and ranks eighth in the National League in ERA. He has allowed 69 hits over 62 innings with a 1.403 WHIP, 2.6 walk rate and 8.3 strikeout rate.

He throws his two-seamer 42 percent of the time, with an average velocity of 94.8 mph, adding his splitter 35 percent and curveball 17 percent. His curve has a 42.0 percent whiff rate.

Cobb had a recent run of seven starts in which he went 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA. But that run ended Sunday when he gave up seven runs, a season high, over four innings versus Milwaukee. In two seasons with San Francisco, he is 11-10 with a 3.53 ERA in 39 starts.