O's game blog: Birds face Shohei Ohtani at Camden Yards

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

August 25, 2021, 2:28pm

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The pitcher standing between the Orioles tonight and possibly ending the second-longest losing streak in club history is also the major league homer run leader. The Los Angeles Angels' amazing right-hander, Shohei Ohtani, who has hit 40 homers while also posting an 8-1 record and 2.79 ERA on the mound, will bat and pitch versus the Orioles tonight at Camden Yards.

He is facing the Orioles as a pitcher for the first time.

On the year, Ohtani has thrown 100 innings, allowing 67 hits and just eight homers with 39 walks and 120 strikeouts. His ERA would be third-best in the American League if he had enough innings to qualify for league leaders and his 1.060 WHIP would be fifth-best. He yields 6.0 hits per nine innings with 3.5 walks and 10.8 strikeouts. The Angels are 12-6 in his previous 18 starts.

Ohtani earned the win in his last start on Wednesday at Detroit after working a major league career-high eight innings and allowing one earned run on six hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. He also hit 40th home run of the season in the game. He has won seven straight decisions, including each of last four starts. In his last six starts, he is 5-0 with a 1.58 ERA with four walks and 37 strikeouts over 40 innings.

He is the first Angels pitcher with six straight quality starts since Andrew Heaney in 2015, and leads the Angels pitching staff in innings and strikeouts. Ohtani has held opponents to a .075 average (7-for-93) against his splitter this season. He was the starting pitcher for the AL in the All-Star Game and earned the win after working a perfect first inning.

Ohtani has allowed two earned runs or less in 15 of his 18 starts in 2021, including in 10 of his 11 games with an ERA of 2.83 in that span. He has 11 quality starts.

The Orioles (38-86) scored eight runs last night, but lost 14-8 to the Angels as their losing streak reached 19 games, during which they've been outscored 163-55. O's pitchers have an ERA of 8.50 during the streak, allowing 10 or more runs seven times.

With his next homer, the O's Ryan Mountcastle will move into a tie with Trey Mancini for third-most rookie homers by an Oriole. Cal Ripken Jr. leads this list with 28 in 1982, followed by Eddie Murray with 27 in 1977 and Mancini with 24 in 2017. Mountcastle hit two solo homers last night and has 23 for the year. He's hit six homers his last 11 games and nine over his past 20 games.

The Angels (63-64) ended a three-game losing streak last night and improved to 4-4 on their current 10-game road trip. They are 4-0 on the year against the Orioles and 7-10 over their past 17 games.

O's outfielder Anthony Santander connected on his 13th home run of the season, along with two doubles and a single, in last night's game. It was his second career game with three extra-base hits; he also did that Aug. 18, 2020 versus Toronto with two homers and a double.

Seven of Santander's 13 homers have come this month, along with four doubles, and he is slugging .690 in 19 games this month. That is the second-highest slugging percentage in the AL behind Boston's Hunter Renfroe at .726 and the fourth-highest in the majors among qualified hitters. Overall in August, Santander is batting .338/.365/.690 (24-for-71), with his 1.055 OPS leading the AL.

The Orioles have homered 29 times in the month of August, zero with runners in scoring position. And 26 of the 29 home runs have been solo shots, with just three coming with runners on base, each with a runner on first base.