Now an O's team that has fallen to second-place, one that lost twice via walk-off results at Citi Field, one that has lost four of six and six of 10 and that is 29-32 since June 13, goes into a demanding stretch of games.

The Orioles host first-place Houston for four at Camden Yards beginning tonight. Then the Birds fly across the country and play three in Los Angeles against the first-place Dodgers starting Tuesday night.

It's a tough seven-game run for an O's team that is 16-16 since the All-Star break and got swept three in a row at Houston in late June. The Orioles scored 11 runs in that series opener but lost 14-11 at Minute Maid Park. Then they lost 5-1 and 8-1 decisions, outscored in that series, 27-13 by the American League West leader.

With a win by the Yankees 6-0 over the Guardians today, the Orioles (74-54) are one game back in the AL East heading into tonight's game.

While O's starting pitchers have allowed two earned runs or less six times the past eight games, the Baltimore bullpen has been scored on six straight games with an ERA of 6.43 in that span. The O's pen has allowed eight homers the the last six games over 21 innings.

Cedric Mullins is in center field tonight after being absent from the lineups in Queens.

Colton Cowser is playing left field and Ryan O’Hearn is in right. Anthony Santander is the designated hitter.

Adley Rutschman is batting fifth. Jackson Holliday is seventh.

Gunnar Henderson is slugging .717 in 28 games against the American League West this season.

The Orioles have homered in 16 consecutive games, tied for the third-longest streak by any team this season behind the Twins (28) and Orioles (22 straight in June) per STATS.

HOUSTON - In baseball, you are riding high one day and not the next. Or you have plenty of momentum and you are winning series against two of baseball's best teams one day and getting swept by a team starting to play well again the next.

When the Orioles rallied from 11 runs down to get within three late in the game at Houston Friday night, we were marveling at this team's effort and fight and ability to come back even when down double digits runs.

Now two losses later - games that were not close at the end - we are left wondering if the Orioles are a tired team? If they are now suddenly having pitching issues and if the injuries finally caught up to them?

The real question to answer here - and it may take days, weeks or even longer to begin to figure out - is has this team hit a bump in the road or a real big pothole? Is this just a few losses or the beginning of a longer downward trend? Are the Orioles not as good as they looked just, what seemed like hours ago?

My guess is this too shall pass, and this club will return to winning soon. They have bounced back so many times the last couple of years, what is another?

The Orioles begin their three-game series in Houston with Colton Cowser out of the lineup for the second consecutive day.

Ryan O’Hearn is making his second start in left field, with Cedric Mullins in center and Anthony Santander in right.

Jordan Westburg is the third baseman. Adley Rutschman is serving as designated hitter.  

Texas native Grayson Rodriguez is making his first career start in Houston. He faced the Astros last season at Camden Yards and allowed two runs in six innings.

Rodriguez has made three starts this month and allowed five earned runs in 19 1/3 innings. He’s walked two batters and struck out 16.

Last weekend, the Orioles lost the first two games of a home four-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays. They were now tied for first in the American League East.

What followed was an outing of eight scoreless by Grayson Rodriguez leading to an 8-0 Saturday win. And when the Birds won a crazy game the next day their lead was back to two games atop the division.

Fast forward to the series at Cleveland. They lost the first two games, and their starters went a combined 8 1/3 innings. But then John Means on Saturday and Kyle Gibson Sunday combined to allow two runs over 14 1/3 innings and the O's pulled out another improbable four-game split.

Had they not won the 2-1 game Saturday, their division lead would have been 1/2 game. But they kept it at 1.5 with the victory that night and it's 2.5 games now with six games to play.

The magic number for the AL East title is down to three heading into today's much needed off day.

On this day a year ago - Sept. 20, 2022 - Heston Kjerstad went 1-for-4 with a triple and three RBI's for High-A Aberdeen in the South Atlantic League Championship Series. He would lead the IronBirds to a win and to a third and deciding game of the SAL final series that they would not win.

And for Kjerstad, who now has five games and 13 major league plate appearances under his belt, with two homers, hitting his second last night, his story includes his bout with myocarditis, one that delayed his minor league debut. But once he got started, he moved fast.

Kjerstad made his O’s professional debut with Low Single-A Delmarva on June 10, 2022, and ended the year with Aberdeen in the playoffs, before he tore up the Arizona Fall League. That led to beginning this year with Double-A Bowie, moving to Triple-A Norfolk and now making the majors. It all happened in a span of just over 15 months from that first game with the Shorebirds.

In a clubhouse interview Sunday morning, I reminded him that this time last year he was playing for Aberdeen in the SAL Championship Series.

“Definitely been awesome,” Kjerstad said. “Been a lot of different places on different teams over the past year. Definitely pumped now to be here. It’s been a real journey and really excited now to get things rolling up here and be part of a team that is this special.”

The Houston Astros were averaging 4.76 runs per game to rank sixth in the American League as this series began. But the O’s have seen the best from their lineup as they rallied to win in the ninth Tuesday and pulled away late in the game last night to win 8-2.

That is 15 runs over two games against a Baltimore staff that came into this series on a good roll. Heading into this series, the O’s were 7-1 their past eight games with a 2.15 team ERA and 21-7 the previous 28 games with an ERA of 3.23.

Baltimore had allowed just seven runs during a four-game win streak. The O’s staff gave up 10 runs total in taking three of four from Toronto and just six runs in a three-game sweep of the New York Mets.

But Houston was playing good baseball coming into Baltimore and it’s continued over two days and now they can sweep this three-game series this afternoon.

Five times this year the Orioles have lost the first two games of a three-game series, but they won the last one to avoid being swept. It happened against Texas, Milwaukee, the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Orioles led their series-opening game with Houston 2-0 after one inning last night and 5-0 after the second. They led 6-2 after seven and 6-3 after eight. But they lost it in the ninth, 7-6, as Houston took the opener of a three-game series. 

The Orioles had been 61-3 this season when leading after eight frames. And right-hander Félix Bautista had converted 10 straight save chances and was 19-for-20 in his past 20 save opportunities. But he could not hold the 6-3 lead Tuesday night.

Bautista suffered his sixth blown save and first since June 24 versus Seattle. The 19-for-20 run dated back to May 24. He gave up four runs, tying a career high. 

So the O’s try to bounce back tonight behind right-hander Jack Flaherty (8-6, 4.28 ERA). He is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.50 in his one Orioles start.

Last Thursday at Toronto he gave up four hits and one run over six innings with two walks and eight strikeouts on 92 pitches. He also had a shutout on 58 pitches through five innings. His fastball touched 97 in the first inning – the fastest pitch he has thrown this year.

Claimed on waivers from the Los Angeles Angels on Monday, right-hander Jacob Webb is the newest member of the Orioles bullpen. He is at Camden Yards today after being activated for tonight's game as right-hander Joey Krehbiel was optioned back to Triple-A after Tuesday’s loss to Houston.

Webb was DFA by the Angels over the weekend after going 1-1 with a 3.98 ERA over 31 2/3 innings and 29 games. He gave up 23 hits with 20 walks and 34 strikeouts, recording a 1.358 WHIP with a 5.7 walk rate and 9.7 K rate.

“I’m very happy. From a fourth-place team to a first-place team,” Webb said of joining the Orioles. “Obviously, pretty good scenario. Just trying to come in here and do what I do. Help the team as best I can.

“Yeah, kind of (the DFA was surprising). Situation over there – I was the odd man out in that scenario. But coming here is a nice little surprise. Ready to get to work.”

Webb is pleased for the most part with his season numbers. In his last game for the Angels on Friday against Seattle he pitched a scoreless inning. 

Among the many impressive accomplishments by the Orioles in 2023 is their handling of a starter who pitched a no-hitter in his previous outing. A trait that didn’t figure to surface twice.

They show no fear of also being on the wrong end of history. And they don’t tolerate any drama.

That last part didn't arrive tonight until the top of the ninth inning, against a closer who hadn't surrendered a run since June 24. Because baseball never lets itself become too predictable.

The Yankees’ Domingo Germán no-hit the Athletics on June 28, faced the Orioles on July 3 and surrendered three runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. The Astros arrived today for a three-game series and sent Framber Valdez to the mound, a week after he became the first left-hander in franchise history to toss a no-hitter.

Adley Rutschman led off the bottom of the first inning with his 66^th walk to surpass last year’s total, and Ryan Mountcastle drove an 83 mph cutter 472 feet to left-center field, beyond the bullpens, for the longest home run by an Orioles player in the Statcast era.

The Orioles will host the 2022 World Series champion Houston Astros tonight to start a three-game series as their homestand continues. Houston is the only American League club the Orioles have yet to play.

The O’s swept the New York Mets over the weekend and lead Tampa Bay by three games atop the AL East. The Orioles (70-42) have outscored their opponents 25-7 during a four-game win streak. They have won seven of eight games and 11 of 15, and are 21-7 in the last 28 games.

O’s pitching has an ERA of 2.15 while allowing 19 runs the last eight games. Their ERA in the past 28 games is 3.23.

In the series versus the Mets, the O’s staff gave up just six runs (five earned) over 27 innings, allowing 15 hits with 11 walks and 26 strikeouts. The Orioles pitched their sixth shutout of the year Sunday with a 2-0 win over the Mets as Kyle Bradish, Cionel Pérez, Cole Irvin, Shintaro Fujinami and Félix Bautista teamed up for a four-hitter.

The Orioles bullpen combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings Sunday and threw 10 innings in the series without allowing an earned run. Over the past eight games, the O’s ‘pen has allowed one earned run in 25 1/3 innings. Their bullpen ERA for the year is down to 3.53, which ranks third-best in the AL.

Adley Rutschman is leading off and serving as designated hitter tonight, as the Orioles begin their three-game series against the Astros at Camden Yards.

The Orioles are facing another left-hander tonight, Framber Valdez, which obviously impacts how manager Brandon Hyde writes out his lineup.

Jorge Mateo is in center field, and Austin Hays returns to the lineup as the left fielder.

Gunnar Henderson is playing shortstop and batting fifth. He leads the Orioles with 62 runs scored and can become the first rookie to finish first in that category since Cal Ripken Jr. (90) in 1982, per STATS.

Willie Tasby led the Orioles with 69 runs in 1959 and Tito Francona was first with 62 in 1956.

If the Orioles' rebuilding efforts were and are at least partially being modeled after the Astros, is there a way to compare where Baltimore is in the process in looking at Houston’s winning run?

Sure we can look at it and it provides an interesting exercise. But it is certainly not an apples to apples comparison.

The Orioles lost 100 or more games for three straight full seasons from 2018 through 2021. Houston did that from 2011-2013. The 2014 Astros then went 70-92 taking a step forward and breaking out of the 100-loss rut. The Orioles did that going 83-79 last season. The 2015 Houston team then won 86 and made the American League Division Series, so they were in the postseason in year two post 100-loss seasons and that timeframe would put Baltimore in the 2023 playoffs. The 2016 Astros though won just 84 and missed out on the playoffs.

But that all led to 2017, a tainted World Series win, but also the beginning of a run of four World Series appearances in six years. Which team wouldn’t take that run of success? The Orioles did that once of course in yesteryear, from 1966 to 1971, winning the WS twice in the greatest run of success in team history.

So Houston had the 100-loss years, then three seasons with one playoff appearance leading into six years of consistent winning and  World Series appearances. If the O’s followed that exactly, which is unlikely of course, they would be looking at one playoff appearance over the next two years with things really humming starting in 2025.

There will be some rules changes coming to Major League Baseball in 2023 and among them is essentially the elimination of infield shifts. Starting next year, two infielders must be on each side of second base and they have to be no deeper than the back-edge of the infield which touches the outfield. Also, teams cannot switch defenders and for instance move a shortstop to the second base spot on the right side against a pull lefty batter.

This change should add some offense and some defense to the game.

The shift takes hits away from batters that are pull happy with groundballs and mostly unable to hit against the shift. Had they been able to do that, they would see fewer shifts. But we know how that turns out.

I went back and looked at the MLB number for Batting Average of Balls in Play (BABIP) every year since 2010. For most of the seasons between 2010 and 2019, the final BABIP was between .297 and .300. But teams kept shifting more and more and that number dropped to .292 in the shortened 2020 season and in 2021. The BABIP was .290 last season.

Now that lefty batters won’t face a seeming picket fence on defense on the right side moving forward, some hits will be added to their up-to-now sinking batting averages. That could create more scoring in the game in general and more scoring chances. More runners can mean more pressure on pitchers, who then make more mistakes in some of those spots and more runs are scored.

After their gut-punch loss on Saturday night, it’s a quick turnaround for the Orioles today as they try to erase that memory and win this afternoon to take the series from the now 100-win Houston Astros.

When Anthony Santander hit his second homer of the game – a two-run shot in the last of the eighth – the Orioles had taken a 9-7 lead. But that lead would not hold. Houston’s four-run ninth led the Astros to an 11-10 win. Houston improved to 100-53 by winning for the fifth time in seven games, 11^th in 14 and 19^th time in the past 25 games.

Houston has become the first club in American League history to reach 100 wins four times in the span of five full seasons, per Elias Sports Bureau. And Dusty Baker is one of four managers in MLB history to win 100 games with a team in both leagues (also: Sparky Anderson, Whitey Herzog and Tony LaRussa). Their 100 wins ties a franchise record for most wins in the first 153 games of a season (also: 2019). Houston recorded its 28th comeback win and this marked their third game of the season surrendering 10-or-more runs (last: 5/14 at WSH, 13).

The Orioles (79-72) now have 11 games remaining. They lost ground Saturday to both Seattle and Toronto in the wild card race. They are four games behind Seattle, 4 1/2 back of Tampa Bay and 5 1/2 behind Toronto, which holds the first AL wild card today.

The Orioles had their streak of 22 scoreless innings pitched snapped with Jose Altuve’s two-run home run in the third inning. Baltimore scored five runs in the fourth inning, their 11th time scoring at least five in an inning this season. They fell to 58-2 when leading after six innings and are now 21-24 in one-run games. The O’s 17 hits is their most in a loss since Aug. 10, 2018 versus Boston, when they also had 17. Six different O’s tallied multi-hit games, the second-most in a game this year (8/19 vs. Boston, 7).

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has seen his club bounce back from hard losses to keep its season moving forward. The next challenge comes this afternoon.

It won’t be easy following last night’s 11-10 loss to the Astros, who are trying to salvage a split of the four-game series.

The defeat pushed the Orioles four games behind the Mariners for the last wild card. The tie-breaker belongs to Seattle, which scored in the ninth inning last night to beat the Royals.

Eleven games remain and the Orioles still need two wins to assure a no-losing season.

The left-handed lineup turns with Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Stowers and Terrin Vavra. Adley Rutschman is catching.

The sight was odd but not unexpected. A reliever warming by the fourth inning. Runs on the board for the visiting team.

Mike Baumann wasn’t called upon as a starter tonight to give the Orioles the same length as his predecessors. He was subbing for injured right-hander Tyler Wells, and the Oriole needed to keep evaluating him. That’s why he was chosen.

They got four innings out of him. He left with a lead. The game was placed in the hands of a fresh bullpen. Pretty much as designed.

The rest of it imploded. No where in the plan was Félix Bautista throwing a career-high 33 pitches in 1 1/3 innings, charged with four runs and his first blown save since the Jorge López trade in a stunning 11-10 loss to the Astros before an announced crowd of 22,546 at Camden Yards.

Anthony Santander homered twice, the second a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth that gave the Orioles a 9-7 lead. But the Astros loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, a run scored on Alex Bregman’s fielder’s choice grounder, Kyle Tucker doubled to tie the game.

The Orioles look to continue their winning ways over the Astros tonight as the teams play the third game of a four-game series at Camden Yards. The O’s will also try to keep their amazing recent run of pitching going, a run that has seen their staff allow just one run the last three games.

The Orioles (79-71) have 12 games remaining in the regular season and have now won three in a row by a combined 16-1 score. After scoring just two runs in the first two games of the Detroit series, they now have 16 in these three games and they have gone 10-for-18 with runners in scoring position in those games.

The Orioles improved to 44-32 at home with Friday’s win and they are 27-15 at home since June 22.

For the third time in the five games that they have played against Houston this year, the Orioles shut out the Astros last night as right-hander Dean Kremer pitched a complete-game four-hitter on 106 pitches. He threw a combined 29 two and four-seam fastballs with 29 cutters, 27 curveballs and 21 changeups. He got 15 swings and misses. In two starts versus Houston, Kremer has allowed one run and eight hits over 16 2/3.

In his past eight starts, he is 4-1 with a 2.29 ERA and has allowed just two homers in that span over 51 innings. For the season Kremer improved to 8-5 with a 3.07 ERA.

Fresh off their 8-1 win Wednesday night over the Detroit Tigers, the Orioles host the Houston Astros tonight at Oriole Park. In late August, the O’s won two of three at Houston, in what may have been one of their most impressive series wins of the year.

Houston (99-51) has already clinched the American League West and comes to Baltimore as a team on a roll. They just swept three in a row from Tampa Bay, pitching two shutouts in that series. Overall they have won four in a row by a combined 25-4 score. Houston has won 10 of 11 and 18 of its last 22 games. They are 49-28 on the road, winning seven straight and 11 of 12 on the road.

But at Minute Maid Park recently, the O’s won the first two games by 2-0 and 3-1 scores, before losing the series finale by 3-1. Their series win was so impressive as Houston entered that series with a 42-18 home record on the year, with seven straight wins at home at the time and with a 27-8 record in their previous 35 at home.

The O’s got incredible pitching that weekend in Houston allowing 14 hits and four runs in three games. Their three starters – Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer and Austin Voth – combined to pitch 21 2/3 innings allowing seven hits and two runs.

The Orioles (77-71) ended that series just 1.5 games behind the final AL wild card. Now, with 14 games left, they are four games behind Seattle for the final spot and they are 4.5 back of Tampa Bay and 6.5 behind Toronto. The Rays and Blue Jays begin a four-game series tonight in Florida.

HOUSTON – The Orioles took the field tonight following afternoon losses by the Blue Jays and Rays. They knew if they won this evening, they would gain some ground in the AL wild-card race. Two homers later, they took early control of this game and were on their way to a second straight win against the team with the best record in the league.

Another gem on the mound proved pretty vital as well.

Anthony Santander and Austin Hays homered in the third inning and right-hander Dean Kremer allowed one run over 7 2/3 innings as the Orioles beat the Houston Astros 3-1 in front of 34,526 at Minute Maid Park.

The Orioles (67-59) moved eight games over the .500 mark for the first time since May 21, 2017. They are now 1.5 games out of the last AL wild card spot. 

They have won five of six and eight of 12 games and are 32-15 in their last 47 games. Baltimore has now won five straight games at Houston after a sweep here last year. Before that, the O's were 6-20 all time in Houston.