O's game blog: The homestand opener against Detroit

Fresh off their fourth win this season when trailing after eight innings - they are now 4-61 in such games - the Orioles open a seven-game homestand tonight with the first of three against the Detroit Tigers. Houston will be at Camden Yards for a four-game series beginning Thursday night.

After losing two in Toronto by 6-3 scores, the Orioles went to the top of the ninth yesterday trailing 3-2. But Adley Rutschman’s two-run single with the bases loaded gave them a 4-3 lead, and Jesús Aguilar’s single drove in an important fifth run.

The Orioles won it 5-4 to take the finale of the series and head home at 76-69 with their fifth win in the last 13 games. The Orioles began this day four games behind Seattle for the third American League wild card spot, 5 1/2 behind Tampa Bay for the second and six games behind Toronto for the first one.

As of this writing, the Mariners were leading by seven runs late in their game today against the Angels. 

The Orioles improved to 35-39 on the road and went 5-5 this year at Rogers Centre. They have won nine of their past 14 and 13 of 21 on the road.

And now they have three series remaining this year at Oriole Park, where they are 41-30 this year. They have gone 24-13 at home since June 22. But the Orioles did lose six of 10 on that last homestand against Oakland, Toronto and Boston. They began the stand 2-0, but then lost six of eight.

They have scored just eight runs in their past four home games, and lost two of three to Boston in their last series at Camden Yards.

Tonight right-hander Tyler Wells (7-6, 3.93 ERA) will make his 23^rd start and his third since returning from the injured list. On Sept. 7 he pitched two innings, allowing one run versus Toronto. Last Wednesday he went four innings, allowing two hits, both solo homers, at Washington. He threw 34 pitches against Toronto and 50 versus Washington.

The Orioles are 11-11 in Wells' 2022 starts. His innings load is now at 100 2/3 for the year after he pitched 57 innings all of last season.

Lefty Tyler Alexander (3-10, 5.35 ERA) gets the start for Detroit. He has really struggled lately, with a 9.64 ERA and a 1.181 OPS allowed his past two starts. He is 0-3 with a 10.06 ERA his last four starts, allowing a .373 batting average and 1.155 OPS.

Alexander has made 23 appearances this year, and 13 starts. In his starts only, he is 1-12 with a 6.87 ERA and 1.527 WHIP. His homer rate is 2.08 per nine innings in his starting assignments.

The Tigers (55-91) have lost two in a row, six of seven and 13 of their past 18 games. They have struggled to score runs and rank last in the majors, scoring 3.30 runs per game. They rank last in the AL in team slugging (.341) and team OPS (.625). The O’s are tied for 20^th in the majors, averaging 4.17 runs per game. The major league average is 4.30.

The Orioles are 0-3 this season against Detroit. In May, after they had taken two of three versus St. Louis, they lost three in a row at Comerica Park by a combined 12-3 score.

Yesterday's win snapped a 12-game losing streak in day games for the O's and marked their first win in a day game since Aug. 3 at Texas. Major League Baseball defines a day game as any game that begins before 5 p.m. local time.

The Orioles now have 13 wins when trailing after six innings, the third-most in the majors; only the Cleveland Guardians and Philadelphia Phillies (14) have more. The O's have eight wins when trailing after seven innings, tied with the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees for fourth-most in the big leagues, behind the Guardians and Phillies (11) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (9).