Austin Hays and Kyle Gibson led the way in Wednesday's win, producing a series sweep

ANAHEIM - On the night the Orioles blew out the Los Angeles Angels 10-3 to complete a three-game sweep and win their fifth straight, two players that had strong first halves had big nights.

Both right-hander Kyle Gibson and outfielder Austin Hays have been looking to get it going and last night showed signs that both could be doing just that.

Hays has been swinging it well recently and had a 4-for-4 night with a double, two singles, a homer, three runs and four RBIs. He is now batting .288 with a .799 OPS.

At the All-Star break, Hays, a 2023 All-Star, was batting .314 but that dropped to .279 in mid August. In July he hit .162 with an OPS of .446.

Now in 18 games since Aug. 15. he is batting .338/.413/.646/1.059 with eight doubles, four homers and 13 RBIs. The Orioles are 13-5 in those 18 games.

"Just driving the baseball, getting huge hits for us," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Plays Gold Glove defense every night in left field. Had an outstanding game tonight offensively. Shows up to play every day hard and he set the tone offensively tonight."

Hays' four hits were all hit hard with exit velocities of 105, 104, 101 and 105 mph.

"I had a tough July. Just for whatever reason I started hitting more groundballs. I missed a few games with that hip pointer. Took me a little time to get my fastball timing back. Once I got my swing back to where it was those first three months, then got back on the fastball timing through the middle of the field. Started making better swing decisions on the breaking balls. Chase (rate) went down, and I started hitting balls harder again," he said.

For the third straight day the O's hold a 3.5 game lead atop the division over Tampa Bay. They don't have the look of a team feeling any September pennant race pressure.

"“We’re just doing the same thing we’ve done all year," said Hays. "This group has a lot of fun, but we play hard and show up every day to win the game and win the series. Really not changing anything that we’ve done all year. Because we have been so consistent series to series. Been able to combat going through bad runs because we turn the page and move onto the next day. Just sticking with that mindset."

Speaking of mindset, for Gibson it was a bit of a mindset adjustment, sort of taking some pressure off his shoulders that led to him pitching better last night.

He gave up three runs over six innings and is now 14-8 with a 5.12 ERA. That is a career-high in wins for Gibson, who had an ERA of 9.13 his previous four starts.

“Normally when I get in a stretch like this, I do a little deep dive and look at things. I’ve just gone through a stretch where my pitch execution was not where it needed to be. I was using some pitches in situations where I probably was overthinking it and not to my strengths a little bit. So tried simplifying the approach," he said.

He added: 'Part of this the last week was just sitting here and mentally taking a break. Mentally not worrying about what happened the last month. Really turning the page on a calendar month and understand there is nothing I can do about that month. If I put too much pressure (on myself) thinking about October or the next start, it’s not going to do myself any good."

O's starting pitchers now lead MLB with 43 quality starts since June 1. They have 60 QS on the year, going 47-13 (.783) in those games.

Gibson said his younger teammates are handling the stretch run just fine.

“I think so. I think this team for as young as we are, is pretty mature and a pretty wise team. I’ve said it all year, it’s hats off to the player development department that gets these guys ready. Mentally there is not a situation they can’t handle. There is not a situation or a series that is overwhelming these guys. That’s pretty rare for the young teams I’ve been on," he said.

Before Wednesday's game, producing the O's ninth sweep of the year, Hyde told the media he was tweaking the team's rotation. Cole Irvin is in the bullpen for now and their starters Friday through Sunday at Boston are Kyle Bradish, Jack Flaherty and Grayson Rodriguez. 

Click here for more from the pregame interview about the rotation tweaking and what it could mean over the next few series.

Now the Birds get today off and take their five-game win streak to Boston on Friday. They are 5-1 on the road trip, 34-16 (.680) in the second half and 39-16 (.709) since July 5.

With 23 games to go, a 12-11 finish or better would give the Orioles a 100 win or more season.