O's game blog: Chance for a four-game sweep on "Sunday Night Baseball"

It certainly would not in any way make up for losing three straight last October in the American League Division Series. But the O's have a chance to produce a four-game sweep tonight over the Rangers on the national stage of ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball."

The Orioles (53-30) will end a seven-game homestand tonight that began with two losses but might end with five straight wins.

The Orioles tonight also end a stretch where they will have played 30 games over the last 31 days since May 31. They get another off-day, finally, on Monday. The Orioles are 18-11 (.621) during this stretch.

When it began, the Birds were 35-19 and two games out of first place. As it ends tonight, they began play Sunday 23 games over .500 and leading the AL East by one game. That is now a half-game after a Yankees win today.

Tonight the Orioles look for their sixth series sweep of the year of three games or more and their third of four games. They swept four at Chicago versus the White Sox from May 23-26. They won four in Florida against the Rays from June 7-10. They have three-game sweeps over Boston, Minnesota and Cincinnati.

During a four-game winning streak, O's starting pitchers have allowed 22 hits and five runs over 25 innings with no walks and 14 strikeouts. That is an ERA of 1.80 in the four games which was preceeded by a stretch of eight straight games where the Orioles did not have a quality start. 

The Orioles are 17-11 in June. They went 2-1 in March and 17-9 each in April and May.

Lefty Cole Irvin (6-4, 3.74 ERA) is on the mound tonight for the Orioles, making his 14th start. The Birds are 9-4 in the first 13.

Irvin has allowed nine earned runs over 8 2/3 innings in his past two starts. Over his last three starts, he has allowed 17 runs (12 earned) over 14 1/3 innings, allowing a .358 batting average and .998 OPS.

Irvin has a 5.47 ERA in five June games after posting an ERA of 2.01 in five games in May.

In two career games against Texas, he is 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA and 1.645 WHIP.

Lefty Andrew Heaney (2-9, 4.17 ERA) gets the start for Texas. He was the Game 1 starter in the ALDS and allowed one run and two hits in 3 2/3 innings in a game the Rangers would win 3-2 at Oriole Park.

Heaney gave up just two runs over five innings his last start against Milwaukee, but Texas has won just three of his 15 starts. In five games this month, he has an ERA of 3.62 and OPS against of .676.

In seven career games (six starts) versus the Orioles, he is 2-3 with a 7.63 ERA and has allowed 13 homers and a 1.070 OPS over 30 2/3 innings. 

The last time the Orioles had three four-game sweeps in the same season was 1976, when they swept four-gamers from Sept. 21-23 at the Yankees and Sept. 11-13 at the Brewers and June 17-20 at the Rangers. The Birds have not swept a four-game series at home since July 7-10, 2022 versus the Angels.

Gunnar Henderson owns a career-best 36-game on-base streak since May 22, the longest active streak in the major leagues and the longest by an O's batter since Nick Markakis' 38-game streak from July 5 to Aug. 18, 2009. The Yankees' Aaron Judge had a 37-game on-base streak from May 2 to June 12, the longest in the big leagues this year, and Juan Soto had a 39-gamer that ended on April 2, 2024, but that started on Aug. 26, 2023 with the Padres. For Henderson, 35 of those have been as the starting shortstop, the longest such streak in team history ahead of a 30-gamer by Cal Ripken Jr. from June 26 to July 28, 1986.

During his on-base run, Henderson has batted .326/.441/.631/.1.072 with 13 doubles, 10 homers and 24 RBIs. Henderson, who ranks third in the AL with an OPS of 1.000, leads the majors with 73 runs scored. That is the most runs through the first 83 team games of a season in O's history.