O's game blog: Looking to break through and win at Cleveland

From June 24-26, the Orioles lost two of three at home versus the Cleveland Guardians. This series at Cleveland has started with the O's losing the first two games of this series by 10-3 and 8-4 scores.

The Baltimore pitchers have allowed 18 runs and 11 walks at Progressive Field and the starters - Trevor Rogers and Dean Kremer - have allowed nine runs and 12 hits over a combined 9 1/3 innings.

Cleveland, which holds the best record in the majors and best home record in the majors, leads the American League Central by six games over Kansas City and 6 1/2 games over Minnesota.

At 67-42 (.615), Cleveland is the only team in the major leagues with a current win percentage of .600 or better. The Guardians have won five in a row and eight of their past 10 games. They are 9-5 since the All-Star Game and 35-15 at home.

The Orioles (65-46, .586) began today tied for the third-best record in the majors, behind only Cleveland and the Philadelphia Phillies (65-44, .596).

With the Yankees' 8-3 win today over Toronto they lead the AL East by a half game over the Orioles at 66-46. The Orioles need to win tonight or, for the first time since June 26, they will end the day neither in first place or tied for first place. 

The Orioles are 19 games over .500 even after losing two in a row, three of five, eight of 13 and 13 of the last 21 games. 

Since June 21, the Orioles are 16-21 with a minus-43 run differential. In that span they are scoring 4.6 runs per game but have a team ERA of 5.44 and have allowed a .796 OPS to opponents.

The Orioles are 1-4 against Cleveland and have lost the season series for the sixth time in the last seven years. This season they've been outscored by the Guardians in those five games 33-21 and recorded a 6.07 team ERA. 

Tonight they turn to right-hander Zach Eflin (6-7, 4.11 ERA), who will make his 21st start and his second with the Orioles. In Game 1 of a doubleheader on Monday at Camden Yards, he got the win over Toronto. Over six innings he allowed a season-high 10 hits and three runs but surrendered no walks and got seven strikeouts to tie his season high. 

Eflin threw 98 pitches in that game, his second-most in 2024, behind 103 against the Yankees on July 10.

Eflin's career high for innings is 177 2/3 in 2023. He is on pace to pitch 169 this season.

In his only previous career start versus Cleveland, on Aug. 13, 2023, he allowed nine hits and six runs over three innings, giving up two home runs.

Eflin has walked no one in 11 of his 20 starts this year and has walked one or none 18 times.

He ranks second in the majors in fewest walks per nine innings:

0.99 - George Kirby, Seattle
1.01 - Zach Eflin, Orioles
1.32 - Shota Imanaga, Cubs
1.45 - Miles Mikolas, St. Louis

Eflin has seven quality starts and this year and his teams are 11-9 in his 2024 outings. 

Lefty Joey Cantillo (0-0, 8.10 ERA) will make his second career big league start for Cleveland. The native of Hawaii was selected in the MLB Draft in round 16 of 2017 by San Diego.

Sunday at Philadelphia in his debut, he went 3 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and three runs on 75 pitches.

In eight games this season at Triple-A, Cantillo went 1-1 with a 2.79 ERA and 1.483 WHIP. Over 29 innings he walked 19 and fanned 39.

In that game versus the Phillies he threw his four-seamer 53 percent of the time, at an average velocity of 92.2 and topping at 95 mph. He used his changeup 23 percent and slider 17 percent, getting four of nine whiffs on that pitch. His changeup speed is just 77.7 mph. 

MLBPipeline.com ranks him as Cleveland's No. 9 prospect. Baseball America puts him at No. 14.