Akin goes career-high seven innings in O's 13-1 romp (updated)

Given new life late in their baseball season, the Orioles are trying to avoid a new losing streak.

They may never lose again. Rearranging the outcomes can't be done without turning the tables.

Shohei Ohtani lofted a ball onto the flag count on the second pitch from starter Keegan Akin, but the left-hander did his finest work as a professional with one run allowed in seven innings. The Orioles tied the game in the third, Pedro Severino hit a grand slam as part of a six-run fifth and they claimed the series with a 13-1 victory over the Angels before an announced crowd of 10,211 at Camden Yards.

The mood at the ballpark brightened this morning and kept getting better, with the Orioles improving to 40-86 and winning back-to-back games for the first time since July 30-31 in Detroit.

Their last series win came in a three-game sweep of the Nationals on July 23-25.

Their 40 wins match the 1962 Mets. But enough history lessons for one season.

"Everyone's a little more confident, a little glad that was over," Akin said. "That was a tough stretch there. Good comeback win (last night) and to finish it off today with a series win, we're where we need to be going into this Tampa series."

Akin worked through the sixth for the first time in his career, needing only six pitches to finally retire the side in order. He threw six more to breeze through the seventh, leaving his count at 92. He totaled 20 pitches in his last three frames.

The last Oriole to go seven innings was John Means on May 24.

Akin surrendered only one run and three hits with two walks, six strikeouts and a hit batter, and his ERA was lowered from 7.92 to 7.26.

"I thought Keegan got better as the game went on," said manager Brandon Hyde. "I thought the command was a little iffy early, the slider was a little flat, but he improved as the game went on. The command got better, the fastball had a little bit more life, it seemed like to me. I liked the way he pitched in to the majority of the hitters. Was very aggressive. When we got the lead, even more aggressive. They were aggressive on him early and he was getting a lot of quick outs, which was fantastic. So, seven really good innings from Keegan and gave our bullpen the rest they need."

Today's victory is the second for Akin in the majors, the other Sept. 16, 2020 against the Braves. The Orioles lost the last 12 games that he appeared in, but the former second-round pick got a tighter grip today on his rotation spot. Squeezed the stuffing out of it.

"That's what you dream of as a starting pitcher," Akin said. "You want to go out there and go six, seven innings, eight innings almost every outing. Obviously, it's a lot harder to do that than it is to say to do it. It's a great feeling and good to finally get a series win."

Cedric Mullins walked against reliever Elvis Peguero with one out in the sixth, stole his 24th base - to go with 30 doubles and 22 home runs - held as Ryan Mountcastle walked and scored the go-ahead run with two outs on Trey Mancini's bouncer into center field.

DJ Stewart, who walked twice earlier, doubled into the left-center field gap for a 3-1 lead. Ramón Urías walked, Jake Petricka entered and his first pitch to Severino was launched into the bullpen for the catcher's second career slam - the other on Aug. 24, 2019 against Tampa Bay.

The Orioles have hit 33 homers this month, none with runners in scoring position until today.

Severino added a two-run double in a five-run eighth to give him a career-high six RBIs.

"We had a tough moment losing (19) game in a row, we didn't play right and I just tried to help the team win," Severino said. "I just got the bases loaded there and tried to put my barrel on it, and I got a good result."

Ohtani struck out five times in the first two games of the series, but he turned an Akin curveball into his third leadoff home run this season. Four more and he catches Mullins.

The leadoff hitter reached against Akin in the first five innings, but he kept finding answers.

Kurt Suzuki was hit by a 1-2 pitch in the second and Stewart lost Jo Adell's fly ball in the sun for a single. Akin struck out the next three batters on fastballs clocked at 94.6, 93.6 and 93.2 mph.

Ohtani drew a leadoff walk in the third and Akin retired the next three batters, closing the inning by striking out Jared Walsh. Suzuki walked in the fourth and Akin fought back again, getting a fly ball and two more strikeouts to raise his total to six. Jack Mayfield flailed at a changeup to end that inning.

Juan Lagares beat out a bunt in the fifth, broke too soon for second base and was caught stealing 1-3-6.

"Just keeping it simple," said Akin, who's made some mechanical adjustments. "I quit throwing out of the windup and just strictly stuck with the stretch. Just make things simple, keep it easy, keep it repeatable. And then a little bit of the front side, the glove, keeping it through the zone is kind of the mentality. Throw the ball through the zone and not to the zone, and just trying to keep things simple.

"I was kind or overthinking things a little bit there for a good stretch. Kind of got that out and really focus on those two things, and I think it's starting to pay off a little bit."

Jahmai Jones had the Orioles' first hit with a leadoff double against Jaime Barria in the third inning, and he scored on Kelvin Gutiérrez's single to tie the game. Gutiérrez was tagged trying to get back to first base.

Mullins reached on a bunt single, stole second base and raced to third on Suzuki's throwing error, but Anthony Santander grounded out.

Mancini opened the bottom of the fourth with a single and Stewart walked again. Urías singled and Mancini slid across the plate with the apparent go-ahead run, but he was called out upon review.

Free outs were distributed today like giveaway items.

Holding Mancini would have loaded the bases with no outs. Stewart didn't go to third on the throw, though Severino struck out and Jones popped up.

Austin Hays came off the bench again and doubled with one out in the seventh. Urías singled on the ninth pitch of the at-bat against José Quintana and the Orioles led 8-1. Urías also had an RBI double in the eighth.

Mancini has a six-game hitting streak. He's collected nine hits in his last six games.

Mountcastle has reached base in a career-high 17 consecutive games. He also doubled in the sixth and had a two-run single in the eighth after two Angels errors.

The Orioles hadn't scored 10 or more runs in back-to-back games since June 8-10, with an off-day in between. They defeated the Indians 18-5 and Mets 10-3.

"We got some big hits that we haven't gotten for the last couple months, back-breaking hits. We seem to have problems with that," Hyde said

"I thought we were a little sloppy early, made some mistakes, but Keegan helped us stay in the game and allowed us to put that rally together. It was kind of an emotional night last night, and to follow it up with a win today, it's a good feeling."

Jorge López made his second appearance since moving to the bullpen and had two scoreless innings with one walk and four strikeouts. Two strikeouts in the eighth came on fastballs clocked at 97.5 and 96.2 mph.

"Every day we come here we try to do the best we can and we try to finish strong," Severino said. "One month left and it's not how you start, it's how you finish. We've been losing a lot of games, and this last month maybe we win 15-20 games and everything is going to change."

Notes: Single-A Aberdeen outfielder Hudson Haskin has a fractured thumb that ends his season. Haskin, last year's second-round pick out of Tulane University, is the organization's No. 16 prospect per MLBPipeline.com.

Haskin hit a combined .274/.379/.404 with 19 doubles, three triples, five home runs, 42 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 29 attempts in 82 games between Aberdeen and low Single-A Delmarva.

Richie Martin hit a two-run homer today, his first with Triple-A Norfolk, and also doubled, drove in two runs and scored twice. Adley Rutschman doubled and was hit by a pitch.

Ofelky Peralta allowed two runs and five hits in five innings, with one walk, five strikeouts and a home run. César Valdez tossed two scoreless innings with one hit and one strikeout. Thirteen of his 17 pitches were strikes.

The Marlins signed former Orioles reliever Cody Carroll to a minor league deal.