O's game blog: Orioles look for sweep in Oakland series finale

The Orioles win on Friday night over Oakland, by a 5-2 score, came with the help of three late runs in the eighth inning. Their 8-1 win last night came via early offense as they built a 6-1 lead by the fourth inning.

Today, the Orioles (71-61) go for a series sweep of Oakland. They have swept two three-game series this year, both versus Texas, at home July 4-6 and at Texas Aug. 1-3. They swept a four-game series July 7-10 versus the Los Angeles Angels at Camden Yards.

The Orioles are looking for their first sweep of the A's since a four-game set in Baltimore from Aug. 14-17, 2015, and their first season series victory over Oakland since 2017 (4-3). The teams have split six games this year. 

Baltimore begins play today 1 1/2 games behind Toronto for the final American League wild-card berth, and they are 3 1/2 games back for the first and second wild card spots.

The eight runs last night were the most by the Orioles since their 15-10 win over Boston Aug. 19.

The Birds won their fourth consecutive game, and are 10 games over .500 for the first time since May 12, 2017 (22-12). Over longer stretches, the Orioles have won seven of nine, nine of 12, 12 of 17, 20 of 30 and 41 of their last 63 games.

The Orioles are 2-0 on this 10-game homestand and 39-24 for the year. Since June 22, the O's are 22-7 at Oriole Park.

The Orioles tied a season high with five homers last night. Ryan Mountcastle hit a pair and now has 21 on the year with 72 RBIs. This was his third multi-homer game this season, his first since June 15 against Toronto and the sixth of his career.

Mountcastle is 5-for-11 with three homers his past three games. He has hit six homers his last 18 games with an OPS of .776 in that span.

Anthony Santander hit his 25th home run, a solo homer in the fourth inning. He became the first Orioles switch-hitter with 25 home runs in a season since Bobby Bonilla hit 28 in 1996. He's the sixth O's switch-hitter in franchise history with 25 or more homers in a season, joining Bonilla, Eddie Murray (10x), Ken Singleton (1979), Mickey Tettleton (1989) and Mike Young (1985).

The O's tied a season high with five home runs, and this was the fifth time they have done that in 2022. The five games with 5+ home runs are the third-most in a single season in team history and most since the 2016 team set the club record with seven such games.

O's pitchers had another good night, and they have now allowed just three runs this series and three in the last four games. They have given up just 12 runs the past eight games and 30 in the last 13 games. 

The O's team ERA is down to 3.76, which is tied for sixth-best in the AL and under the league average of 3.87.

The Baltimore bullpen has thrown 16 1/3 scoreless innings over the last 5 games. The club's 3.09 bullpen ERA ranks third-best in the AL and is fourth-best in MLB.

O's starting rotation notes:

* ERA of 1.17 the last 4 games

* Have eight quality starts last 10 games with 1.88 ERA.

* Allowed two earned runs or less in 11 of last 12 games with ERA of 1.96

Right-hander Spenser Watkins (4-5, 4.26 ERA) gets the start for the Orioles this afternoon, coming off a game where he allowed five runs in 4 2/3 at Cleveland. His ERA is 4.70 in six games since Aug. 1, and he has allowed two or fewer earned runs three times. The Orioles are 9-9 in his 18 starts.

Oakland is scheduled to start right-hander Adrián Martínez (3-3, 5.28 ERA). He gave up one run in 5 1/3 his last start against the Yankees. Oakland is 3-3 in his six outings. In three road starts, he is 1-2 with a 6.91 ERA.