O's game blog: Jack Flaherty makes O's debut facing Kevin Gausman in Toronto

TORONTO – After the Orioles got just one run over six innings in losing 4-1 last night to Toronto and lefty Yusei Kikuchi, they face another top starting pitcher today in former Oriole right-hander Kevin Gausman. 

After winning Monday and Tuesday, the O’s lost last night and now are 66-42 but once again lead the American League East. They are 1.5 games ahead of Tampa Bay for the eighth straight day after the Rays’ 7-2 loss to the Yankees.

The Orioles lead third-place Toronto by 6.5 games and are nine games ahead of Boston and 10 up on New York.

Even if the Orioles lose today and split this series, this will be the 10^th straight AL East series where the O’s won or tied the series and didn't lose it. They went 7-0-2 in the previous nine. They are 23-14 for the year in AL East games and 21-10 in 31 games over these last 10 division series.

Toronto has lost six straight AL East series and needs a win today to avoid losing this one. Toronto (60-49) has won six of its last 10 and 15 of 24 games overall. The Blue Jays are 34-24 (.586) over their past 58 games.

For the season they are 8-22 in division games. They are just 4-20 in the last 24 in the AL East after last night’s win. A victory today and they would snap a six-series division losing streak with a four-game split.

As O’s right-hander Jack Flaherty (7-6, 4.43 ERA) makes his Orioles debut today he faces the former Baltimore first-round draft pick in Gausman (8-5, 3.10 ERA).

Gausman, who gave up two runs over eight innings to the Orioles on May 21, is 1-1 with a 4.76 ERA in three games against Baltimore in his career.

In the 2023 AL rankings, Gausman is:

* First in strikeouts at 171 and first in K/9 at 12.1.
* Fifth in ERA.
* 11th in innings pitched at 127 2/3.

This year, lefty batters hit .242 with an OPS of .714 versus Gausman and right-handers bat .224/.620. In 10 home starts at Rogers Centre, he is 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA and 1.026 WHIP.

But the Blue Jays are just 11-10 in his 21 starts and they are 1-4 in his past five games.

The Orioles are now 7-2 versus Toronto and 5-1 at Rogers Centre this year, where they went 0-10 in 2018. Baltimore will win the season series against Toronto for the first time since going 12-7 in 2017.

Flaherty last pitched on Wednesday against Arizona, giving up three runs in five innings on 95 pitches. The 27-year-old right-hander can be a free agent at the end of this season.

Since giving up 10 runs to the Los Angeles Angels on May 4, he is 5-2 with a 3.58 ERA in his last 13 starts, over 75 1/3 innings. He has six quality starts in that span, allowing three earned runs or fewer 10 times.

Flaherty has one career start versus Toronto and it was in the second game of the 2023 season. He pitched five no-hit and no-run innings but walked seven batters.

He throws his four-seam fastball 40 percent of the time with an average velocity of 92.9 mph. He adds in his slider 25 percent, curveball 19 percent, cutter 10 percent and changeup and two-seam sinker three percent. Flaherty, who averages 4.4 walks and 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings, has a 41.7 whiff rate on his curveball.

After today’s game the Orioles head home for a six-game homestand against the Mets and Houston that begins Friday night at Oriole Park.