O's game blog: Looking for a series victory against the New York Mets

The Orioles have gone four straight series against National League opponents without winning one, but that could end today as they play the New York Mets at Citi Field.

Since they won back-to-back series against Atlanta and Philadelphia in mid-June, the Orioles have gone 0-3 versus the Chicago Cubs, 1-2 at Miami and 1-2 against San Diego before going 1-1 at home recently against Washington.

That is a run of 0-3-1 in those four series as the Orioles have gone 3-8 over 11 games. And now they have split two games against the Mets with the series-deciding game set for today.

The Orioles are 8-3 in 2024 in rubber match games and 0-1 when that comes in a series against the NL.

For the year, the Orioles are 16-20 against National League clubs, going 4-6-2 in 12 series pending the outcome of today’s game.

Right-hander Dean Kremer pitched the Orioles to a 9-5 win last night after the Mets won the series opener 4-3 in a walk-off Monday. Kremer allowed two hits and one run while throwing 100 pitches over six innings. After scoring eight total runs the three previous games, the Orioles put up nine as Anthony Santander and James McCann each hit a two-run shot, Santander for his 37th homer of the year and McCann for his fourth. Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Austin Slater added two hits each.

The Orioles (74-53) improved to 37-25 on the road and to 9-9 this month with Tuesday’s victory. After they won last night, the Yankees lost in 12 innings to Cleveland, moving Baltimore back into first-place by half a game. 

According to MLB.com, the Orioles have only had 74 or more wins over their first 127 games twice in the past 27 seasons. And this has been done these last two seasons. They were 79-48 at this point last year on their way to 101 wins and the American League East title. And they have 74 wins now.

Taking Zach Eflin's rotation spot today and getting the start for the Orioles will be lefty Cole Irvin (6-5, 4.85 ERA). 

It is hard to remember now, but Irvin had a 2.87 ERA on June 7, but then his ERA was 8.50 over a four-start stretch from June 13-30. In five bullpen appearances in July, his ERA was 9.00 over 14 innings. When the O's made several deadline trades on July 30, it led to Irvin being designated for assignment. But on Aug. 2 he was outrighted to the minors and reported to Triple-A Norfolk. 

He recently made two outings for Norfolk this month, throwing 6 2/3 innings while allowing five hits and four runs, three earned. After all that, he will try to pitch the O's to a series win today at Citi Field.

Lefty Sean Manaea (9-5, 3.46 ERA) gets the start for the Mets this afternoon. New York is 16-8 when he starts this year, and 4-1 his last five outings.

Manaea has had a good year and been particularly solid lately. He has thrown seven innings or more three times his past four starts, logging a 2.25 ERA and .547 OPS against in that span.

In his last 10 games he is 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA, a .197 average against and .612 OPS.

In 130 innings for the year he has allowed 1.208 WHIP and 0.9 homers per nine innings, along with 3.6 walks and 8.9 strikeouts per nine.

Manaea has been good throughout his starts, allowing a .646 OPS the first time through the batting order, .672 the second time through and .625 the third time. He has allowed two earned runs or fewer 15 times this season, notching six scoreless starts and nine quality starts.

The Orioles have homered in 15 straight games since Aug. 4, their second such streak this season after setting the franchise record with a homer in 22 consecutive games from June 1-23. The current run is the fourth-longest home run streak in the majors this year, behind the Mets' (16, June 15-July 3), their own (the aforementioned 22-game run), and the Twins' (28, June 10-July 10).

This is only the second time in franchise history that the Orioles have had multiple home run streaks of at least 15 games in one season, joining 1998, when the club had runs of 19 games (April 27-May 17) and 20 games (July 17-Aug. 9.