O's game blog: Tyler Wells faces the Yankees

The Orioles won their series opener on Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers. But they lost the next two games to lose that series. They won the series opener at Camden Yards last night against the New York Yankees and now need one win the next two days to win their first series of 2022.

For the fourth straight game, there was a low-scoring contest at Oriole Park as the Birds won 2-1 in 11 innings. Neither team homered and the Yankees had seven hits, going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The O’s had six hits and went 1-for-15 with RISP. But when Ramón Urías drew a two-out, bases loaded walk in the 11^th from Aroldis Chapman, the O’s got a walk-off victory.

Speaking of walks, the O’s drew 10 last night. That included six from the No. 8 and No. 9 spots in the batting order. Those last two spots went a combined 2-for-4 with six walks. It is the first time the O’s have drawn three walks from the nine spot in the order since Andrew Velazquez drew three on Sept. 14, 2020 against Atlanta.

The Orioles drew 10 walks for the first time since May 6, 2012 at Boston and for the first time at home since May 7, 2011 versus Tampa Bay. The Orioles now rank second in the American League with 34 walks, behind only Seattle with 39. They are sixth in walks in the major leagues. The club drew just four walks in the season’s first two games, but has 30 over the last five games. They were 13^th in walks in the American League last season.

The Orioles have not given up a home run in four straight games at Oriole Park, marking the first time the Orioles have not allowed a homer in four in a row at OPACY in a single season since July 10, 2016 versus the Los Angeles Angels and July 22-24, 2016 against Cleveland.

The Orioles bullpen, which ranks second in the AL with a 2.06 ERA, put up 5 2/3 scoreless on just one hit Friday. The grouping of Dillon Tate, Jorge López, Bryan Baker, Cionel Pérez and Joey Krehbiel did not walk a batter and fanned nine.

Here were their average and top velocities for the night:

* Tate at 93.4 and 96.7 mph
* López at 98.0 and 99.2 mph
* Baker at 92.6 and 94.4 mph
* Pérez both at 95.8 (threw one fastball)
* Krehbiel both at 95.1 (threw one fastball)

López recorded his 300th and 301st-career strikeout. On the Orioles, only John Means (308) and Jordan Lyles (884) have more.

Right-hander Tyler Wells (0-1, 21.60 ERA) gets his second start tonight. He took the 8-0 loss last Sunday against Tampa Bay, allowing four runs and three hits over 1 2/3 innings with two walks and strikeouts. Wells threw 54 pitches and gave up a two-run homer to Brandon Lowe. He had pitched to an ERA of 1.59 in four spring games.

Last season he made six appearances against New York going 0-1 with a 4.70 ERA. Over 7 2/3 innings he gave up five hits and four runs with an 11.7 K rate and 1.044 WHIP.

Right-hander Jameson Taillon (0-1, 3.60 ERA) starts against the Orioles. In the 2010 First-Year Player Draft, Bryce Harper was selected No. 1, Pittsburgh took Taillon No. 2 and the Orioles selected Manny Machado third. The O’s really liked both Taillon and Machado and club officials then indicated they’d be excited however it worked out. In the end it worked out that Machado would become an Oriole.

In 29 starts last year, Taillon went 8-6 with a 4.30 ERA over 144 innings with a 1.206 WHIP, 2.7 walk rate and 8.7 strikeout rate. In 14 road games in 2021, he went 3-4 with a 5.60 ERA. In two starts versus Baltimore, he was 0-0 with a 3.27 ERA over 11 innings.