O's game blog: Trying to avoid a sweep at Oriole Park

To say the least, the Orioles have had their struggles with the last-place Detroit Tigers this year. In May, right after the Orioles had impressively taken two of three at St. Louis, they lost three straight at Comerica Park by a combined 12-3 score. Then they came home Monday night, after Sunday’s ninth-inning comeback win at Toronto and lost 11-0. They lost to the same team 3-2 last night.

Tonight the Tigers (57-91) can sweep this three-game series and their season series against the Orioles with another win at Oriole Park. The O’s, outscored 26-5 this season by Detroit, need to get back in the win column tonight.

The Orioles (76-71) need to go 6-9 or better in their remaining 15 games to post a winning record for the first time since 2016. In the wild card race, Baltimore is five games behind Seattle for the final wild card spot in the AL and are 5.5 back of Tampa Bay and 7.5 games back of Toronto.

The Orioles continue to have problems putting up consistent offense. They have just two runs and one extra-base hit, a homer, in this series, going 8-for-61 (.131) at-bat and going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The Birds have scored three runs or less in 14 of their past 23 games. They’ve scored just 10 runs in their past six home games, getting two or less four times.

The Orioles have lost four of five and 10 of their past 15 games. They are 41-32 at home, 8-10 in September, 21-23 in one-run games and 15-17 in games versus AL Central teams.

Outfielder Anthony Santander recorded Baltimore’s 26th outfield assist of the season in the fifth inning; entering play Tuesday, the O’s ranked fourth in the AL in outfield assists.

Right-hander Austin Voth suffered his third loss of the season. He pitched five innings and allowed two runs on six hits (one home run) with three strikeouts. He had his franchise record of recording a team win in eight straight home starts snapped. Voth is 2-2 with a 2.32 ERA in his last seven appearances.

Third baseman Gunnar Henderson hit his third career home run and his first at Oriole Park, a two-run shot in seventh inning. He became the sixth player in Orioles history to have at least 14 RBIs in his first 19 games. Also the sixth O's player with at least 22 hits in his first 19 career games. And Henderson became the second-youngest O’s player to homer at Oriole Park joining Manny Machado (20-035).

Left fielder Austin Hays (1-for-2, R, 2 BB) has reached base safely in seven consecutive games; batting .333 (7-for-21) with two doubles, two runs, one RBI, and six walks.

On the mound tonight, right-hander Jordan Lyles (10-11, 4.70 ERA) makes his 30^th start. He has thrown 161 innings for the year allowing 184 hits with a 1.453 WHIP, 2.8 walk rate and 7.2 strikeout rate. The Orioles are 14-15 in his starts.

Lyles has allowed 12 earned runs over 8 2/3 innings on 12 hits his past two starts since returning from an illness. Those outings were against Boston and Toronto.

Right-hander Matt Manning (2-2, 3.28 ERA) starts for Detroit and is coming off seven scoreless on three hits in his last game against the Chicago White Sox. His ERA is 2.08 his past three starts. The Tigers are 5-6 in his 2022 starts.