O's game blog: Looking to win the San Francisco series finale

With three straight losses and their last win coming Saturday at Detroit, the Orioles host the San Francisco Giants this afternoon in the finale of this series. With wins Tuesday by 10-0 and last night by 5-3, the Giants can sweep this series this afternoon.

The Orioles (84-68) are 16 games over the .500 mark, the fewest over they have been since May 29.

In last night's loss, the O's scored two runs in the third on James McCann's RBI double and Cedric Mullins' groundout. An RBI double by Ryan O'Hearn in the sixth produced their final run. They had seven hits and went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

The Orioles have scored nine runs their past five games and 24 in the last 12 games. In those 12 games they are batting .191/.263/.312/.575 and have gone 11-for-74 (.149) batting with RISP.

Overall, Baltimore has lost three in a row, five of six, eight of 10 and nine of the last 12 games. The Orioles are 26-30 since the All-Star break, 31-37 since July 1 and 19-26 on the season versus National League teams. 

Today's pitching matchup is a good one. The Orioles face right-hander Logan Webb (12-10, 3.53 ERA), who is making his 32nd start of the year. He is currently one off the major league lead in starts and his innings total of 193 2/3 is second in the majors only to that of Seth Lugo of Kansas City.

Webb has been one of baseball's best pitchers for several seasons. In 123 games since 2021, he is 49-35 with a 3.19 ERA, for an ERA+ of 126. In that time he has a 1.146 WHIP, walking 2.0 per every nine innings and averaging 8.1 strikeouts. He keeps the ball in the ballpark with a homer rate per nine of 0.6 since 2021.

This year, Webb given up just 11 homers, tied for third-fewest among qualified pitchers and has surrendered a total of six homers over his past 15 starts, covering 94 1/3 innings. Webb's 0.51 HR/9ip this season would match a career-best. 

The Giants are just 15-16 in his starts and he has not pitched his best recently. Over his past four starts, his ERA is 6.86 and his OPS against is .885.

But for the year, Webb has allowed two earned runs or fewer 18 times and has thrown five scoreless starts. He has 19 quality starts and has gone seven innings or more 15 times.

The Orioles are 11-12 all-time against the Giants and 2-6 at Oriole Park. The last time the Giants swept any series of three games or more from an American League opponent came back in 2022 when they took a three-game set from the Cleveland Guardians from April 15-17 at Progressive Field.

San Francisco is trying to sweep its third series of the season. The only two sweeps the Giants have completed this year have both come against the Colorado Rockies (a three-game set in May and a four-game set in July, both at home).

The Giants are 13-20 (.394) since Aug. 11 and the .394 winning percentage in that span is second-lowest in the NL ahead of only Miami (13-21, .382) and fourth-lowest in MLB.

O's right-hander Zach Eflin (10-9, 3.55 ERA) gets the start today in the series finale. His teams are 18-11 in his starts this year and the Orioles are 5-2. Eflin is 5-2 with an ERA of 2.22 in those seven O's games only. In 10 home starts this year between his two teams, he is 5-3 with a 2.63 ERA.