O's game blog: O's host St. Louis as important homestand begins at the Yard

With 20 games to play, the Orioles lead the American League East by three games over the Rays. While the Rays (88-56) play at Minnesota tonight the Orioles (90-52) will host the Cardinals to start a three-game series.

For Baltimore, this opens a weeklong homestand that will see the Birds host the Rays for four games starting Thursday night. This is the second-to-last homestand of the 2023 regular season.

The Orioles saw a seven-game win streak snapped with Sunday’s loss at Boston. Overall they have won seven of eight, nine of 12, 13 of 17 and 16 of the last 21 games. The Orioles are 27-11 (.711) in their past 38 games.

The Birds are 42-26 at home and 36-17 in the second half.

The Cardinals (63-80) are 17 games under .500 but are playing better lately winning five of its past seven, and seven of 11 games. The Cardinals have won their past two series, two to one against both the Braves and the Reds.

The Cardinals enter today in fifth place in the NL Central, 16.5 games out of first. St. Louis has spent 125 of 160 days in last place. Their 63-80 record is their worst at the 143-game mark since 1995 when they were 62-81.

They are 32-40 on the road, 25-28 in the second half and 21-22 in interleague games.

Right-hander Dean Kremer (12-5, 4.07 ERA) is coming off an outing where he did not allow a run but pitched just 4 2/3 innings. He is making his 29^th start tonight. The O’s are 21-7 in his games, winning three in a row, 10 of 11 and 13 of his last 15 starts.

Kremer is 2-1 with a 1.82 ERA posting quality starts four times in his last five games. Over 15 starts since June 13, he is 6-2 with a 3.40 ERA, a .221 average against and a .668 OPS.

Kremer, who threw 134 1/3 innings in 2022 between the majors and minors, is at 154 2/3 for this season.

He began the year with an ERA of 6.67 in six April starts, but his ERA is 3.46 since May 1. He has 14 quality starts for the year and is 5-2 with a 3.43 ERA in 10 games versus National League teams.

Right-hander Dakota Hudson (6-1, 4.43 ERA) gets the start for St. Louis. The Cardinals are 6-2 in his eight starts in 2023.

His last seven appearances are starts and in the past three, he has allowed five runs twice for an ERA of 5.60 and .777 OPS against.

In his eight games only as a starter, he is 5-1 with a 4.63 ERA and 1.276 WHIP. 

The Orioles' magic number is five to clinch a postseason berth for the first time since 2016. It is 17 to clinch the AL East for the first time since 2014.

Sunday's rain delays covered 2 hours and 10 minutes. During the season, the Orioles have spent 20 hours and 53 minutes in delays.

Baltimore (3x) and Atlanta (4x) are the only teams with three winning streaks of at least seven games this season. The Birds have won seven series in a row, eight of nine series, and 11 of 13 series.

At 90-52 (.634), the Orioles have the best record in the AL and second-best in the majors. The Birds are 42-20 (.677) since the start of July, the best record in MLB during that time. The team is 152-101 (.601) since June 2022, the second-best record in the AL and fourth-best in MLB during that span.