O's game blog: O's play Angels in series and road trip finale

ANAHEIM, Calif. – This series began Monday night when the Orioles held off the Angels 4-2 as Craig Kimbrel fanned Mike Trout with the bases loaded and two outs to close out the win.

But with that momentum heading into last night, the Orioles fell behind 7-0 in the fourth inning and lost 7-4 to the Angels.

The Orioles began play Tuesday in first place by a half-game atop the American League East and ended back in second place by a half-game after their loss and a Yankees win over the Athletics.

These two teams have been jockeying for first and second place for several days now and will meet each other in a series that begins Monday night.

But first the Orioles wrap up this series today with the winner taking this series. The Orioles are 15-8 and Tuesday’s loss was just their second in the last nine games and fourth in the past 14. They saw a three-game win streak ended as the Angels snapped their five-game losing streak.

Gunnar Henderson mashed his seventh homer of the year, a solo shot that went 414 feet in the top of the seventh. He entered the game ranked second in the majors in average exit velocity at 96.2 mph and hit that homer 109.4 mph.

With seven homers, Henderson is tied for third in the majors in home runs. He has hit four homers his last eight games and the blast off lefty Matt Moore was his first this season off a left-hander.

Henderson’s homer was the O’s major league-leading 36^th and they have hit 26 in the past 12 games.

Adley Rutschman had three singles, going 3-for-5. Rutschman is 11-for-24 with four multi-hit games his past five games, batting .458 with a double, homer and seven RBIs. In his last 10 games, he is batting .378 (17-for-45) with two homers, eight RBIs and an OPS of .938 in this stretch.

Right-hander Dean Kremer (0-2, 4.91 ERA) gets the ball for the Orioles in the series finale. He pitched the road trip opener Friday at Kansas City, allowing three hits and two runs over 5 2/3 innings. Kremer has allowed 20 hits in 22 innings for the year with a 1.136 WHIP, a 2.0 walk rate and 7.0 strikeout rate.

In two road starts, he is 0-1 with a 2.13 ERA and 0.780 WHIP in games at K.C. and Pittsburgh. He has not started this year versus the Angels.

Entering today's games, the Orioles lead the majros with 36 home runs, the most homers through the first 23 games in O's history. The most homers through Baltimore's first 24 games of a season is 39 by the 2005 team. The Orioles have a major league-best four players with at least five home runs: Henderson (7), Colton Cowser (6), Cedric Mullins and Jordan Westburg (5).

Lefty Tyler Anderson (2-2, 1.42 ERA) starts today for the Angels. While the team is 2-2 in his games, he has thrown seven innings or more three times already and has three quality starts.