O's game blog: Needing a win to avoid being swept in Miami

MIAMI - A road trip that began with promise - the O's scored 17 runs in winning the first two games out of the All-Star break in Texas - is ending with a thud. Especially if the Orioles lose again today at Miami. They will have been swept three in a row and will end the trip with four straight losses.

But the top three American League East teams are a combined 5-12 since the break. The Orioles are 2-3, the Yankees 2-4 and Boston 1-5.

The Orioles (60-41) lead the division by 1.5 games over the Yankees and by six games over the Red Sox.

Since scoring the 17 runs in the series at Texas, the O's have scored eight runs in losing the last three games. They have lost eight of 11 and 10 of their past 15. They are 11-16 with a -40 run differential since June 21. But they have actually gained two games on the Yankees, who have gone 9-18 in the same time frame.

O's ace right-hander Corbin Burnes (10-4, 2.38 ERA) gets the start in the series finale. He is a pitcher on a roll and really has easily been the club’s best starter throughout the season.

The Orioles are 13-7 in his 20 starts. He has thrown four consecutive quality starts with a 2.52 ERA. He has thrown 14 quality starts his last 15 games, going 7-4 with a 2.27 ERA and .609 OPS against. Burnes allowed four runs over seven innings June 22 versus Houston or he could have 15 straight quality starts.

In the American League stats, he currently ranks second (to Detroit’s Tarik Skubal) in ERA, he is third in innings (124 2/3 innings), tied for second with 16 quality starts, seventh in opponent OPS (.603), eight in batting average allowed (.217) and ninth in WHIP (1.043). 

Right-hander Roddery Muñoz (1-5, 5.14 ERA) will make his 11^th start for the home team. In his last game, he allowed one run and three hits over five innings against the New York Mets. But over his past six games, he has a 5.64 ERA while giving up a .258 opponent batting average and .860 OPS. 

For the year Muñoz, 24, has thrown 56 innings allowing 49 hits with a 1.393 WHIP, a 4.7 walk rate per nine and 7.6 K rate per nine innings. The Marlins are 3-7 his previous starts.

Gunnar Henderson ranks third in MLB with 81 runs scored behind The Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. and the Yankees' Juan Soto (83). It's tied for the most runs scored through the first 100 team games to begin a season in Orioles history with Frank Robinson (1969). He scored three runs on Friday against the Rangers for the eighth time this year, two more than the next closest player (Witt Jr.) and Henderson's 15 such games since the start of 2023 are five more than any other player in that time.