O's game blog: Looking for a series win against Cleveland

The Orioles have played 58 games in the 2021 season, but so far have played just two rubber match games. Those are games to decide a three-game series when the clubs have split the first two games. The Orioles have played just two and won them both. On May 5, the Orioles won 6-0 at Seattle when John Means pitched a no-hitter. On June 2, they beat Minnesota 6-3 to win that series.

The Orioles and Cleveland play their rubber match this afternoon before an off-day on Monday. The Orioles won on Friday night 3-1 and lost 10-4 yesterday.

This afternoon, right-hander Jorge López (1-6, 5.29 ERA) makes his 12th start of the year. Over 51 innings, he has allowed 51 hits, including nine homers, with 22 walks and 52 strikeouts. He has a WHIP of 1.431 with a 3.9 walk rate and 9.2 strikeout rate.

The Orioles are 3-8 in his outings and Lopez often does not get much run support. His 1.94 run support average (11 runs/51 innings pitched) is the lowest among major league starting pitchers (minimum 11 starts). The next-closest pitcher, Milwaukee's Brandon Woodruff, has a 2.37 run support aveage. In López's last eight starts, the Orioles scored one, four, two, four, two, two, two and two runs. That is 19 over an eight-game span.

On Monday at Minnesota, López threw six innings, allowing five hits and one run on 90 pitches. He has allowed one run three times in his last six starts and two earned runs or less in six of his 11 games.

In April, Lopez posted a 7.48 ERA. In six starts since the calendar flipped to May, he has pitched to an ERA of 3.68.

Righty Cal Quantrill (0-1, 2.08 ERA) gets the start for Cleveland. In 18 games and one start this year, he has thrown 30 1/3 innings, allowing 28 hits and just two homers with 11 walks and 25 strikeouts. He has recorded a WHIP of 1.286 with 3.3 walks and 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

He has thrown his fastball 56 percent of the time with an average velocity of 94.6 mph, adding in his slider 26 percent and changeup 17 percent.

Quantrill made a start Monday and allowed four hits and one run over 3 2/3 innings on 60 pitches. In his last 12 games since April 23, he has an ERA of 1.27 with five walks to 21 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings.

He is the son of former major league pitcher Paul Quantrill, who pitched 14 seasons in the majors from 1992-2005 for seven different teams.

The O's bid for a season-high four-game win streak came up short yesterday. They are 20-38 overall, 9-20 at home, 17-12 when scoring four runs or more, 8-26 when their opponent scores first and 3-1 in June.

The O's Ryan Mountcastle has homered in three straight games for the first time in his career, has hit four homers his last five games and five in his past 11. He is the first O's rookie to homer in three straight games since Jonathan Schoop from Sept. 2-4, 2014. Mountcastle is 8-for-19 (.421) during a five-game hitting streak. Over his past 11 games, he's batting .342 (13-for-38) with three doubles, a triple, five homers and 12 RBIs.

Since returning from the injured list May 21, Anthony Santander is hitting .310 (18-for-58) with seven doubles, one homer and four RBIs.

After his five-hit game Saturday, Cedric Mullins is 12-for-24 (.500) during a six-game hitting streak with a double, two triples, two homers and two RBIs. He has an OPS of 1.497 in that span.

Trey Mancini is batting .350 (7-for-20) during a five-game hitting streak. He has reached base safely in 20 straight games, tied for the American League lead with Cleveland's José Ramírez. Mancini leads the O's with 76 hard-hit balls (batted balls with an exit velocity of 95 mph or more), the 11th-most in the AL.