O's game blog: Looking for a sweep in Houston

An Orioles offense that has scored 22 runs the past two nights in Houston should get a test tonight from an Astros rookie right-hander who will try to pitch his team to a sweep-avoiding win tonight.

The Orioles beat Houston 9-7 on Monday night and 13-3 last night. Last week in Baltimore they got swept three in a row by Houston and scored just three runs on 14 hits in that series, hitting one homer while going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. In the first two games this series, they've produced those 22 runs on 31 hits, including five doubles and six homers, and have gone 10-for-28 with RISP.

In the seventh inning and later, the O's scored six runs Monday and 10 runs last night. They've scored nine runs in the ninth inning in this series. The offense has been really good, obviously, as they won to overcome O's pitchers issuing 19 walks in the two games.

Center fielder Cedric Mullins is 7-for-10 in the series and hit his 14th homer last night to tie for the team lead. It was his fourth leadoff homer of the 2021 season. Over his past 12 games, Mullins is batting .370 (17-for-46) with four doubles, five homers and 11 RBIs.

Austin Hays is 5-for-11 with three runs, a homer and five RBIs in this series. Hays is batting .393 (11-for-28) during a seven-game hitting streak with seven RBIs during this span.

Trey Mancini has hit just .143 (6-for-42) over his past 11 games with 15 strikeouts.

Ryan Mountcastle has hit safely in 18 of 25 games this month, with 10 multi-hit efforts. He's hitting .333/.390/.646 (32-for-96) in June. He leads American League rookies in hits (32), home runs (9), RBIs (24), extra-base hits (12), total bases (62), batting average (.352), OBP (.390), slugging (.646), and OPS (1.036) this month.

Houston right-hander Luis Garcia (6-4, 2.83 ERA) will make his 14th start tonight. He has thrown 76 1/3 innings on the year, allowing 60 hits and nine homers with 1.100 WHIP, a 2.8 walk rate and 10.0 strikeout rate.

Garcia, 24, was rated as the club's No. 6 prospect heading into this season. He got the win in his last start versus Detroit, allowing two runs and seven hits over six innings. He has yielded two earned runs or fewer in seven of his last eight starts. In that stretch, he is 6-1 with a 2.33 ERA, .187 opponents average and .633 OPS against.

Garcia leads Houston starters in ERA and strikeouts. The team is 7-6 in his starts.

Garcia is an interesting story. He was signed as a late bloomer by Houston out of Venezuela during the 2017 season for $20,000 at age 19. Because he got a later start than most international amateurs, Houston moved him fast and he's never pitched at Double-A or Triple-A, but he did pitch briefly for them in the 2020 American League playoffs. He threw two scoreless innings.

Scouts have put a 55 grade on his fastball and 70 grade on his changeup. But this year his breaking pitches have been outstanding. He throws his fastball 48 percent of the time at an average speed of 93.3 mph. He uses his cutter 20 percent and gets a 46.2 percent whiff rate on that the pitch. He uses his slider 14 percent with a whiff rate of 45.8 percent. Those pitches are two reasons he ranks in the top 28 percent in the majors in chase rate, the rate at which hitters swing at pitches that are not strikes.

Right-hander Matt Harvey (3-9, 7.54 ERA), coming off his longest outing since May 1, starts for the Orioles. Friday against Toronto he gave up three runs and six hits over 5 2/3 innings. The Orioles won the game and had been 1-8 in Harvey's previous nine starts before that victory.

The Orioles are 6-10 when Harvey gets the start, and he's thrown six innings or more just one time. In eight road starts, he is 2-4 with a 7.93 ERA and 1.761 WHIP.

When this series began Monday, Houston was just a couple days removed from the end of an 11-game win streak. They saw that win streak snapped in the opener of a Saturday doubleheader against Detroit. During the streak, Houston outscored its opponents 93-24. Houston had won 12 of 14, 16 of 20 and 21 of 27 games as the series was to start. They were 41-20 since April 22.

The Astros had gone 10-1 in their last 11 home games before the Monday opener, which included a perfect 6-0 homestand their last time in Houston, June 15-20. Their 26-13 (.667) home record was tied for the best in the AL and Houston owned the best overall record in the AL and the second-best in the majors. Now they must win tonight or the Orioles will sweep them.