Houston offense muscles up and they can sweep the Orioles today

The Houston Astros were averaging 4.76 runs per game to rank sixth in the American League as this series began. But the O’s have seen the best from their lineup as they rallied to win in the ninth Tuesday and pulled away late in the game last night to win 8-2.

That is 15 runs over two games against a Baltimore staff that came into this series on a good roll. Heading into this series, the O’s were 7-1 their past eight games with a 2.15 team ERA and 21-7 the previous 28 games with an ERA of 3.23.

Baltimore had allowed just seven runs during a four-game win streak. The O’s staff gave up 10 runs total in taking three of four from Toronto and just six runs in a three-game sweep of the New York Mets.

But Houston was playing good baseball coming into Baltimore and it’s continued over two days and now they can sweep this three-game series this afternoon.

Five times this year the Orioles have lost the first two games of a three-game series, but they won the last one to avoid being swept. It happened against Texas, Milwaukee, the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Orioles have gone 75 consecutive series of at least two decisions (no ties) without being swept. This dates to May 13-15, 2022. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the most consecutive series without getting swept in Orioles history, ahead of 46 consecutive sweep less series from 1971-72. It is the fifth-longest such streak in MLB history, trailing the 1942-44 St. Louis Cardinals (124), 1906-09 Chicago Cubs (115), 1903-05 New York Giants (105), and 1922-24 New York Yankees (83).

The second O's start and first at home for right-hander Jack Flaherty, did not go as well as the first in Toronto. But he still kept his team in the game last night, allowing six hits and three runs over five innings. He gave up Kyle Tucker's two-run homer in the first and Jose Altuve's RBI single in the second. But he also made some big pitches to strand the bases loaded twice. 

"I thought he pitched well," O's skipper Brandon Hyde said. "I thought the command was a little bit off, the breaking ball early. But I thought he got better as the game went on. ... I thought he did a nice job, kept us in the game."

Flaherty's 16 strikeouts in his first two games with the Orioles are a club record, surpassing Tom Phoebus (1966), Craig Lefferts (1992) and Jimmy Haynes (1995) with 15 each.

But Flaherty didn't sound too please with that outing after the game. 

"Going five isn't going to get it done," he said. "It's great to limit damage and whatnot, and make some big pitches in big spots, but I had a chance there to find a way to get through six. Getting through five and whatnot and limiting damage is great, but you've got to find a way to get deeper. Just got to do a better job of executing early."

Right-hander Dean Kremer (10-4, 4.61 ERA), who had two strong starts late last year versus Houston, will try and pitch the Orioles to a win today. Last August, Kremer allowed one run over 7 2/3 innings to the Astros. Last Sept. 23 in Baltimore he pitched a four-hit shutout against that team on 106 pitches.

Kremer is 2-0 with a 3.44 ERA and .182 average against over his past six starts this season. He faces right-hander Hunter Brown (8-7, 4.07 ERA) in this afternoon's series finale.