Another series win against a winning club: O's take the series from the Phillies

The Orioles continue to hold their own and most of the time do better than that against other winning clubs. Will this bode well for the rest of the year? Will it mean something come October?

Again, great questions. October is a whole other story, and we'll get there when we get there. But the way the O's play against quality opponents has to bode well for where they will be after 162 games have been played.

Against teams that are over .500 as of the end of their game Sunday, the Orioles record is now 22-9 (.710) and they are 9-1 in series. They have won series against the Yankees, Minnesota, Seattle, Philadelphia and Atlanta losing to Milwaukee. They have won two series each against Boston and Kansas City.

Those numbers could change as Boston was one game over (36-35) going into its Sunday night baseball game. Also St. Louis, which went 3-0 versus the Orioles, was 35-35 as of last night.

But the O's are doing quite well and against current division leaders they are 8-5, going 3-1 versus the Yankees, 2-1 against Seattle and Philly and 1-2 against Milwaukee. 

Against the two teams with the current best records in the AL and NL in New York and Philly, they are 5-2.

The homer barrage off Zack Wheeler was unexpected. The guy does not give up a lot of home runs. Coming into yesterday, Wheeler:

* Had not allowed more than one homer in a start this year.
* Had allowed six homers all season.
* Had an 0.62 homer per nine rate to rank eighth-best in the majors.
* Had allowed just four homers his last 12 starts combined.

Then he gave up four over 4 1/3 innings - the first four-homer start of his career. And he tied his career-worst allowing eight earned runs, something he had not done since 2018.

The four homers were hit by Baltimore homegrown players in Gunnar Henderson (No. 22), Colton Cowser (No. 9), Adley Rutschman (No. 14) and Jordan Westburg (No. 11).

The Orioles, who lead the majors in homers, are now 32-4 when hitting two or more homers this year.

The Orioles come away with an impressive series win over the Phillies and both clubs are now 47-24 and on a 107-win pace.

Baltimore outscored Philadelphia 17-10 in the series and 14-5 the last two games.

Philadelphia came into this series tied for second in the majors scoring 5.07 runs per game and got 10 in three games versus an O's pitching staff that posted a series ERA of 2.48 with 33 strikeouts. 

Against a Philly staff that began the weekend second in the majors in team ERA and rotation ERA, the O's put up 17 runs, scoring 14 and hitting six homers in winning Saturday and Sunday.

Getting a well deserved off day today, the Orioles Sunday completed a 17-day stretch with 17 games versus Tampa Bay, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Philadelphia going 12-5. 

On the mound Sunday, right-hander Corbin Burnes allowed two runs over six innings to improve to 8-2 with a 2.14 ERA. Burnes now has thrown 10 straight quality starts, going 5-2 with a 1.85 ERA in that span.

"I just enjoy watching him pitch every fifth or sixth day," manager Brandon Hyde said. "He's just such a pro. And nobody sees the in-between starts, the preparation. What he puts into every start is incredible. He just knows how to pitch. He's got 96 mph cutter and 98 mph two-seamer and keeps the ball down. That's a really, really good lineup he held in check."

The club record for consecutive quality starts is 12 by Jim Palmer in 1975. Burnes is still trying to catch Jack Harshman and Steve Barber who put together 11 quality starts in a row in 1958 and 1965, respectively.

Quite the weekend for the Orioles who played in front of three straight sellouts and saw a series attendance of 133,067.

Next up, the series in the Bronx that begins Tuesday night with the first-place New York Yankees.