Starting pitching stepped it up in Houston, good sign for stretch run

HOUSTON – After a weekend in Houston where O’s pitching gave up just four runs, leading the team to a series win over the club with the best record in the American League, the O’s take some momentum to Cleveland where they open a big series Tuesday night.

They’re all big now, when the club is 1.5 games out of a playoff berth with 35 games remaining.

The Orioles continue to surprise some people around MLB and who could have expected them to head into Houston, win the series with a chance to sweep Sunday? Houston began this weekend with the best AL record at 81-45 which included a seven-game home win streak and home record for the year of 42-18.

But terrific starting pitching led the Orioles to wins by 2-0 Friday and 3-1 Saturday before they lost 3-1 Sunday to end a five-game win streak at Minute Maid Park.

The Orioles continue to show they can play with the AL big boys – both in the AL East and beyond – and outfielder Austin Hays likes their positioning for the stretch run.

“Our starting pitching is really hitting a good stride right now,” he said after Sunday’s loss dropped the O’s record to 67-60. “Knock on wood, we’ve had great health this year as a whole, as a team. So guys being out there every day and making adjustments, and getting to this point of the season, all you can really hope for in the beginning is to have a chance at the end of the year. I feel like our team is really about to start firing on all cylinders, because we are showing signs of adjustments on both sides of the ball.”

It was a series in Houston that had somewhat of a playoff feel with close games and big and loud crowds all three days.

“Yeah. They have a really good pitching staff with good starters," said Hays. "So do we. We’ve got a bullpen that has been great all year and our starting pitching is I think just starting to hit their stride. So, I think that combination – just getting a little more offense going (is needed).

"We’ve done a better job recently of getting things going earlier in the game. We’ve done a great job all year scoring in the later innings. So, the progress of making starters throw more pitches and having better at-bats earlier in the game, it’s been a good adjustment for us. Our team is starting to show what we can do and what we could do in the playoffs.” 

Right-hander Austin Voth allowed just one hit and one run over six innings plus one batter Sunday and took a hard-luck 3-1 loss. His ERA is 2.72 as an Oriole.

Said Voth: “I mean, when we are rolling like we are right now – obviously today we didn’t get the win – but things are going in our direction and we are continuing to prove people wrong I feel like. We’re just a good club that’s scrappy.

“I think a lot of people count us out, you know going into a series and they shouldn’t. We’re a good club and we can compete.”

The starting pitching is really stepping up its game now giving the club both quality pitches and outings and quantity in innings. Over the weekend the starters allowed two runs and seven hits in 21 2/3 innings.

The O’s starters now have thrown a quality start in a season-high five straight games, pitching to an ERA of 1.30 in that span. Those same starters have allowed two earned runs or less seven consecutive games with an ERA of 1.58. And Baltimore pitching has recorded seven quality starts the past 12 games with an ERA of 2.19 in that span.

The starters gave a well-used bullpen a needed rest this series (the 'pen threw just 4 1/3 innings) and going into Friday we could not have expected that to happen at Houston.

“We pitched so well,” manager Brandon Hyde said Sunday. “We had a bad inning today there in the seventh but besides that, our pitching has been outstanding this entire series. We’ve got to start swinging the bat a little bit. You know offensively we need to start scoring some more runs. But our pitching carried us here in two of those wins."

And the O's went toe-to-toe with an AL powerhouse and held their own yet again.

 “I just thought it was two good teams pitching extremely well. We got three good starts, they had really good pitching on their side. Because they were such tight games all three games the intensity raises up a bit. Great atmosphere here, big crowds and loud. Yeah, it was a fun series. Glad we got two. Today was very disappointing, but hopefully we can play well in Cleveland," added Hyde. 

The O's offense produced just six runs and 20 hits over the weekend, going 3-for-22 with runners in scoring position.

But the O's pitching staff has now allowed just 22 runs the last eight games and the staff has given up three runs or less in six of the last seven games and in nine of the past 13.