Keegan Akin throws five scoreless innings as O's beat Indians

The Orioles rotation has gotten on a mini run of good pitching. They would love to turn that into a major run but are going to need a lot more games to produce that.

Small steps.

For now, they will take a rotation ERA of 1.88 over their past five games after Keegan Akin's five scoreless innings tonight against the Cleveland Indians in the series opener at Camden Yards.

Akin's outing got the Orioles started on their way to a third straight win. When Ryan Mountcastle hit a two-run homer in the last of the seventh, the Orioles took a 2-1 lead. And they won by a 3-1 margin to beat the Indians in the series opener tonight.

Akin allowed just three singles with one walk and four strikeouts. He exited the game with a no-decision in a 0-0 game, throwing 86 pitches, 64 for strikes, and lowering his ERA on the year to 3.60.

In eight career starts, two of them in 2021, Akin's ERA is 3.09, which is rather solid. He has given up 11 earned runs over 32 innings with 12 walks to 42 strikeouts.

Here is the recent good run of O's starters leading into this game:

* Akin, Sunday at Chicago: 4 2/3 innings, five hits, one run.
* Jorge López, Monday versus Minnesota: Six innings, five hits, one run.
* Bruce Zimmermann, Tuesday versus Minnesota: 5 1/3 innings, six hits, two runs.
* Matt Harvey, Wednesday versus Minnesota: Three innings, two hits, one run.

Notable is that the O's best pitcher John Means, didn't even throw in this sequence. He gets the start Saturday afternoon against Cleveland.

Akin's night began with a 1-2-3 top of the first on 16 pitches. He walked the leadoff man in the second and then allowed a one-out single. But he got out of that two-on jam with a flyout and a strikeout of right-handed hitting catcher Austin Hedges on a backfoot slider.

Akin stranded two more runners in the Cleveland third, allowing two singles. He got out of that, but his pitch count was at 65 to get just nine outs. That would greatly improve when Akin rolled through the fourth and fifth, both 1-2-3 innings, on 12 and nine pitches to finish with 86.

Mountcastle's homer just got over the glove of left fielder Eddie Rosario. Video replay found there was not fan interference, as the ball was just out of Rosario's reach, even though fans going for the ball had made contact with his glove.

Mountcastle hit No. 7 and it was his fourth homer and seventh extra-base hit in his last 10 games. He is batting .314 during this stretch (11-for-35) with two doubles, one triple, four homers and 11 RBIs.

The O's got an insurance run on Anthony Santander's sac fly in the last of the eighth.

For the Orioles (20-37), this was a rare win in a series-opening game. Before this win, they had lost eight straight series openers since winning 5-3 on May 3 at Seattle. They are now 7-12 in series openers for the season and 2-7 at home.

On the farm tonight: Bowie won 6-2 at Hartford to improve to 21-5 (.840). And with Triple-A Nashville's loss tonight, they fall to 21-6, so Bowie holds the best record in all of Minor League Baseball.