Zach Eflin keeps rolling as club puts together back-to-back strong pitching games

Birdland is wishing and hoping that the Orioles can get on a strong roll the rest of this season. With last night's 5-1 win over Boston, they are 72-50 and now it's a 40-game sprint to the finish to win the American League East.

Looking for their first seasons with back-to-back AL East championships since 1973 and 1974, the defending division champion Orioles are now tied once again at the top with the Yankees who did not play last night.

If the division winner were determined only by division games, the Orioles would be in great shape.

They are well ahead of New York in those standings. Here is how the standings would look this morning if we counted only AL East games this season.

.675 - Orioles (27-13)

.500 - Boston (14-14) and 7 GB

.489 - New York (22-23) and 7.5 GB

.425 - Tampa Bay (17-23) and 10 GB

.415 - Toronto (17-24) and 10.5 GB

The Orioles improved to 6-1 this year versus Boston, their best start in a season against the Red Sox since going 8-0 in 1960. The Orioles are 11-4 versus Boston since April 26, 2023.

If they win two of the next three games, they will have won all three series this season against Boston. The O's last won the first three series of the year against Boston in 1976.

The Orioles look to win their third consecutive game tonight for the first time since July 14-20. They have not won on three consecutive days since they did so four straight from June 26-29. A win tonight and they would be 23 games over .500 for the first time since the end of play on July 9.

We really should not take for granted that remarkable record the O's have within the AL East this year. We don't need to go too far back to 2018 when they lost 115 games and finished 61 games out of first place. Or 2021 when they lost 110 and were 48 games back in the AL East.

Right-hander Zach Eflin is now 4-0 with a 2.13 ERA as an Oriole with four quality starts in four tries. He gave up just one run and five hits over six innings with no walks and a season-high eight strikeouts versus Boston. 

In his first two O's starts, Eflin allowed five runs and in his last two he has allowed one run over 13 innings.

He has walked two with 25 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings with a 1.9 walk percentage and 24.5 strikeout percentage with his new team.

Eflin leads the majors with 12 starts this year without issuing a single walk. He has walked one or less in 21 of his 23 starts.

"Really good stuff again," said manager Brandon Hyde. "He’s got such good command and confidence in all his pitches, and he keeps the ball down. He gets ground balls. He just does a great job of mixing. Same thing he did against us last year.

“He’s just such a pro and he’s pitched in World Series games, and so he’s been in high-pressure situations before. He’s got a real easy way about him and he’s really likeable. Doesn’t seem like there’s a ton of stress out there. He’s very, very comfortable on the mound and he’s comfortable pitching. He just really knows what he’s doing.”

Before the game in an interview about Eflin, I asked O's pitching coach Drew French if Eflin is showing his peak performance with the Orioles or if he can even find another gear going forward?

“I don’t know. I’ve seen him a lot and was in the division with him when he was in Philly," said French. "Quite honestly I think he has gotten better the last couple of years. I don’t think he’s reached his peak yet. There are still certain things we are trying to chip away at.

“He’s dynamic. And he’s versatile. And we like the complimentary stuff that he brings, and we like the presence that he has out there and in the clubhouse. He’s a really good add for us.”

That is for sure and after they got pushed around in a 9-3 loss to the Nationals Tuesday, O's pitchers have allowed two runs and 12 hits the past two nights against Washington and Boston.

It's the fourth time this year the club has allowed two runs or less in back-to-back games and first time since July 2-3 at Seattle when they gave up zero and one run.

Eflin and the O's shutdown a hot-hitting Boston team. Since June 1, the Sox were scoring 5.62 runs per game and they led MLB in batting average and led the AL in on-base, slugging and team OPS at .822.