Akin's strong start, Mullins steals, Severino slam as O's win again

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

August 26, 2021, 11:52am

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When the day began and he took the mound with a record of 0-8 and 7.92 ERA, lefty Keegan Akin would probably have been an unlikely candidate to become the first Baltimore pitcher this year not named John Means to go seven innings or more.

But he pitched his way out of an early jam in the top of the second and got rolling after that. Akin was stellar on the mound in the heat of Camden Yards this afternoon, and the O's put up a big inning in the last of the fifth to beat the Los Angeles Angels 13-1.

Now the Orioles (40-86) have two wins in a row following a 19-game losing streak.

Akin hit a batter and gave up and single to start the Los Angeles second inning, down 1-0 after Shohei Ohtani's leadoff homer, No. 41, to start the game. But Akin fanned the next three hitters, and that may have been the turning point in his day.

He actually allowed the leadoff batter to get on base in every inning through the fifth, but outside of the home run, none scored. It was quite a turnaround day for Akin, who made some progress last Friday when he allowed three runs over five innings against Atlanta. It was his longest outing since June 16.

But today was better, and it was a career high for innings pitched and his first career quality start in his 18th career start. Not bad, considering that, until this win, the Orioles were 1-10 in his 11 starts this season.

Akin allowed just three hits and the leadoff homer over seven innings. He walked two and fanned six, throwing 92 pitches. He is 1-8 with a 7.26 ERA.

Akin relied often on his four-seam fastball today, throwing it 65 percent where he usually averages 57 percent. It seemed to have nice late life at times, especially when he elevated the pitch, which topped at 94.6 mph. He got 10 whiffs today on 46 swings by Angels batters.

Means had thrown seven innings or more five times this year, and now Akin is the second Baltimore pitcher to do that. It's the first O's start of seven frames or more since Means at Minnesota May 24.

So, yeah, been awhile.

After some frustration on offense when a chance for a big rally went bad in the home fourth, the Orioles scored six runs in the last of the fifth to break a 1-1 tie. All the runs scored with two outs.

First in the fourth, the O's got a single from Trey Mancini and DJ Stewart walked. But when Ramon Urias singled, Mancini was thrown out at the plate, called out via a replay after an initial safe call. Instead of bases loaded and no outs in a 1-1 game, Mancini was out and the O's didn't score in that inning.

The frustration didn't last long. They got three big run-scoring, two-out hits in the fifth. Mancini's single up the middle provided a 2-1 lead and when Stewart doubled to left they held a 3-1 lead. After a walk to Urias loaded the bases, the Angels called for Jake Petricka to replace Elvis Peguero.

Pedro Severino came to bat and blasted the first pitch out to left-center for a grand slam and a 7-1 lead. He jumped on a 93 mph fastball and blasted it 437 feet with an exit velocity of 110 mph off the bat. One huge swing, four huge runs. So much for the frustration of the previous inning.

It was Severino's second career grand slam and the Orioles' third this year. He hit one just over two years ago, on Aug. 24, 2019 versus Tampa Bay. Ryan Mountcastle hit the O's first of this season off Washington's Jon Lester on May 22. Then Austin Wynns blasted one on June 12 versus Tampa Bay's Rich Hill.

Until Severino's slam, the Orioles had hit 32 homers this month - none with a runner in scoring position. Nice time to change that up.

Severino added a two-run single in Baltimore's five-run eighth. His six RBIs gave him a career high.

The Orioles scored 31 runs this series after getting just five over the weekend in three losses against Atlanta. This is their highest-scoring series of the year, and today they went 9-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

Mullins was moving on the bases: Cedric Mullins, who hit homer No. 22 last night, had two stolen bases today. He now has 24 for the year and his pursuit of 30 steals and 30 homers continues. No Oriole has ever done that. Just two Orioles have ever had 25 or more steals and homers - the list of two is Don Baylor (25 homers, 32 steals) in 1975 and Reggie Jackson (27 homers and 28 steals) in 1976.

In fact, Mullins now is one of five Orioles, joining the two listed above and two others, to have compiled 24 or more steals and 22 homers in the same season. Add to this list Jonathan Villar (24 homers, 40 steals) in 2019 and Brady Anderson (24 homers, 36 steals) in 1999.

Coming into today, Mullins had gone 11 consecutive games without a stolen base and had just two in his past 17 games. He matched that total today. It is his fourth game this year with two steals - also June 14 at Cleveland, June 28 at Houston and Aug. 2 at the New York Yankees.

A series win: Until the last two games, the Orioles had not won two in a row since back-to-back wins on the road at Detroit July 30-31. This was also their first series win since July 23-25, when they swept three from Washington. The Orioles were 0-6-2 in their previous eight series.

Now they will welcome first-place Rays to town on Friday night. The Orioles are just 1-15 against Tampa Bay on the year, including an 0-6 mark in Baltimore. Right-hander Matt Harvey (6-13, 6.27 ERA) gets the start in the series opener at the Yard.

Farm note: The Orioles say that high Single-A Aberdeen outfielder Hudson Haskin is out for the year with a thumb fracture. The club's second-round pick (No. 39 overall) in 2020, Haskin was batting .274/.379/.404/.783 this season between low Single-A Delmarva and Aberdeen.