O's game blog: Looking for a series win at Toronto

Some nights, when you get solid pitching and defense and a few timely hits, you can win and even beat some of the better teams. The Orioles had a game like that last night when they beat Toronto 4-2 at Rogers Centre. They held the Blue Jays to six hits, and while Toronto went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, the Orioles went 3-for-7 and that was big in a low-scoring, close game.

And while the Orioles have been near the bottom of the league in batting with RISP this year, they have hit much better in a recent small sample size of games.

Starting Saturday and going through last night, they went 2-for-6, 3-for-8, 2-for-6 and then 3-for-7 from Tuesday night with RISP. That is 10-for-27 (.370) over the past four games. Going back a bit further, when the Orioles scored 13 runs on Aug. 26 against the Los Angeles Angels, they were 9-for-16 with RISP. So over their past six games, they are batting .413 (19-for-46) in such spots.

But for the year the Orioles have hit just .234 as a team in RISP situations to rank 14th in the American League. They rank 15th and last in RISP team slugging (.343) and OPS (.654) with RISP. The Orioles' 15 homers are last in the AL with RISP and well behind the next team, which is the New York Yankees, ranking 14th in the AL with 25 such homers.

But last night, the three hits with RISP were all big for the Orioles. In the top of the sixth, with Ryan Mountcastle on second after a double, Austin Hays singled him home for a 1-1 tie and took second on the throw. After a walk, Ramón Urías doubled home two more runs for a 3-1 lead. Urías is now batting .350 (21-for-60) in RISP situations with 26 RBIs. Leading 3-2 in the Baltimore seventh, Jahmai Jones singled with a man on third for the 4-2 lead and another clutch hit.

Tonight the Orioles (41-90) will try to win only their second series of the year versus an AL East team. That came in their season-opening three-game sweep at Boston. They have split a few AL East series since, including one versus Toronto where the third game was rained out, but they have not won one since then. They snapped a 16-game divisional losing streak with last night's win and are 14-42 in AL East games this year.

On the mound tonight, right-hander Matt Harvey (6-14, 6.18 ERA) will make his 27th start. The Orioles are 10-16 when he takes the mound this year, but have lost his last five outings. In his last start versus Tampa Bay, he recorded his first quality start since July 30, allowing three runs over six innings against the Rays on 87 pitches.

In his first three starts of the second half, Harvey threw 18 1/3 scoreless innings. But in his past five, he has a 6.12 ERA, allowing 17 earned runs and 27 hits in 25 innings. In three starts this year against Toronto, he is 0-2 with an ERA of 8.56.

Lefty Steven Matz (10-7, 3.81 ERA) gets the ball for Toronto tonight. He is a pitcher on a roll. He had an ERA of 4.58 at the end of July, but over his past five games, he has allowed one earned run or less four times, going 2-1 with a 1.30 ERA. The Blue Jays are 10-13 in his 2021 starts.

The O's have homered 63 times on the road in 68 games, the fewest in the AL and the third-fewest in the majors. On the flip side, the Orioles have homered 95 times at home in 63 games, the second-highest total behind Toronto with 104 in the AL and the fourth-highest in the majors. The Orioles have allowed 203 home runs as a pitching staff, the most in the majors.

Urías has the second-most RBIs in the second half by an Oriole with 22, trailing only Mountcastle with 25. Urías is batting .355 (38-for-107) with runners on base, .350 (21-for-60) with runners in scoring position, and .367 (11-for-30) with RISP and two outs. And his .350 average with RISP leads the O's and ranks seventh-best in the AL (minimum 60 at-bats).