O's game blog: Looking for a series win in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI – For the Orioles, pitching has told a lot of the story this weekend. The pitching kept the team in the game Friday night until the offense rescued the night with a four-run rally in the ninth. Last night, the pitching put the team in a hole and they could never quite dig out of it in an 8-2 loss.

The Orioles (51-50) and the Reds (39-61) play the rubber match game of this three-game series this afternoon at Great American Ball Park. A win gives the O’s another series victory as they head off to Texas to begin a series there on Monday night.

The Orioles are 14-13-4 in series play this season and 5-8-2 in road series.

Right-hander Austin Voth (1-1, 6.15 ERA) gets the start for the Orioles. After pitching to an ERA of 10.13 for the Washington Nationals, he has been much better with Baltimore. For the Orioles, he is 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 10 games, six of those being starts.

Over 26 2/3 innings for the Birds, he has allowed 26 hits and three homers with 10 walks and 25 strikeouts. He has a 1.350 WHIP with a 3.4 walk rate and 8.4 strikeout rate. The Orioles are 5-1 in his six starts.

In his last start on Monday in Baltimore, he gave up four hits and one run over three innings to the Tampa Bay Rays, throwing 70 pitches.

Lefty Nick Lodolo (3-3, 4.73 ERA) starts the series finale for Cincinnati and is coming off a strong outing. On Monday versus Miami, he pitched six innings and gave up two unearned runs on five hits with two walks and nine strikeouts. He threw 96 pitches.

He has made seven starts on the year, throwing 32 1/3 innings, allowing 40 hits with 14 walks to 47 strikeouts. That is a 3.9 walk rate and 13.1 strikeout rate.

Today will mark his fifth start since a 69-day stint on the injured list. He is 2-1 with a 4.08 ERA in those five games. On April 28, Lodolo went on the 10-day injured list with a lower right back strain. On June 21, he was transferred to the 60-day IL and then was reinstated from the IL on July 5.

He was a high draft pick twice. First taken No. 41 overall out of high school by Pittsburgh in 2016, but he did not sign. And then selected by the Reds in the first round (7th overall) of the June 2019 draft. He was Texas Christian University’s highest-ever baseball draft pick.

Lodolo is rated the Reds’ second-best prospect and is No. 22 on Baseball America’s mid-season top 100. On MLBPipeline.com, he is currently No. 25.

The Orioles offense has been quiet for a lot of this series, save for the ninth-inning rally on Friday night. Last night the O’s took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on an Anthony Santander RBI single and a balk. They had five hits in the first two innings, but just one more the rest of the night. All six hits Saturday night were singles.

Santander is batting .359 (14-for-39) during a 10-game hitting streak with three doubles, three homers and nine RBIs. But some of his teammates have struggled at bat. Ryan Mountcastle, who did not play last night, is 2-for-31 and Austin Hays is 7-for-38. Santander also recorded his third outfield assist of the season last night, recording a double play at the plate.

Trey Mancini played in his 700th career game Saturday, all with the Orioles. He is the 41st player in franchise history to play in at least 700 games with the club.