O's game blog: Looking for two in a row over Phillies

After they had allowed 24 runs in the Boston series, losing all three games, the Orioles pitched a shutout Monday night as they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0. It was a damaging loss to the Phillies' playoff chances.

Lefty John Means and two relievers teamed on a four-hitter. It was the fourth shutout of the year for a Baltimore staff that had allowed 81 runs the previous nine games.

* April 2: Means goes seven innings as O's blank Boston 3-0 on opening day.
* May 5: Means pitches a no-hitter at Seattle in 6-0 victory.
* July 18: Matt Harvey goes six strong innings in 5-0 win at Kansas City.
* Sept. 20: Means allows four singles in 6 2/3 innings against Philadelphia.

Means improved to 6-7 with a 3.25 ERA. He threw 105 pitches, his fourth outing of 100 or more pitches, and second-most of the season behind 113 in the no-hitter. It was Means' fifth scoreless start of 2021 and 12th quality start among 30 by the entire O's staff.

Means also picked up his first win since July 31. The Orioles had lost his previous eight starts, even though he threw well in many of those games. For instance, his ERA was 3.00 his four starts before Monday night.

"This felt more like me," Means said after the win. "Changeup was good today, finally. Changeup, fastball was working, curveball wasn't as good. But, you know, I made through it. But, yeah, this felt like more my style of pitching."

Added O's manager Brandon Hyde: "This was our best starter giving a great effort and pitching an outstanding ballgame. Two of our better relievers pitching the last seven or eight outs. Meansy had the changeup tonight. That was a big difference. Something he struggled with here the past handful of starts. Had everything working, one walk and that was late. Just a great job of pitching against a team that is fighting for a playoff spot."

Right-hander Cole Sulser got four big outs on just 12 pitches. With runners on first and third and two outs in the last of the seventh, he got former Oriole Freddy Galvis to line out to right on a 1-0 pitch.

In the ninth, Tyler Wells got a 1-2-3 inning for his third save after Bryce Harper flied to the wall in center for the first out. Wells had allowed six runs in 1 2/3 innings his previous two games.

The Orioles (48-102) play game No. 151 tonight. They are 25-51 on the road, 7-12 this month and 7-11 versus National League teams. They had lost eight of nine games before Monday's victory.

Philadelphia (76-74) lost ground to first-place Atlanta, falling from two games out to three back in the NL East with 12 to play. In the race for the second NL wild card spot led by St. Louis, Cincinnati is three games back, San Diego four out and Philadelphia is 4 1/2 games behind the Cardinals.

Right-hander Conner Greene (1-1, 5.31 ERA) gets the start tonight as part of a bullpen game for the Orioles. For the year, he has allowed 22 hits, but just one homer, over 20 1/3 innings with eight walks to 22 strikeouts. He has a WHIP of 1.475 with a 3.5 walk-rate and 9.7 strikeout rate.

Greene gave up three runs in one-third of an inning on Sunday at Boston. But in the previous 10 games before that, his ERA was 0.84. In that span, he gave up one earned run over 10 2/3 innings with six walks, 13 strikeouts, a .184 average against and a .559 OPS.

Greene uses his fastball 46 percent of the time at an average velocity of 95.7 mph, with his slider 35 percent, curveball 11 percent and changeup 8 percent.