O's game blog: O's and Pirates will decide this series in Game 3

For the second straight series, the Orioles will play an opponent in a rubber match game after splitting the first two games of a series. They play in Pittsburgh to decide this series after winning 5-2 Friday and losing 5-4 yesterday in 11 innings.

The Orioles, 5-3 overall, are 1-1 on the road and 1-0 in rubber match games. They split two games with the Royals before Wednesday's 4-3 walk-off win gave them a series win.

A win today would make the Orioles 3-0 in series this season.

Pittsburgh is now 7-2 after a 5-0 start. They began the year 4-0 at Miami and went 2-1 at Washington. So whichever clubs win today will have three series wins to start its year.

With that 7-2 mark (.778), Pittsburgh is tied with the New York Yankees and Cleveland for the best record in baseball.

In the AL East, New York leads Boston (6-3) by one game, Baltimore by 1.5 with Tampa Bay and Toronto three games back at 4-5.  

Right-hander Dean Kremer (0-0, 5.06 ERA) will get the start in the series finale, his second of the year. On Tuesday in Baltimore versus Kansas City, he allowed three hits and three runs over 5 1/3 innings with one walk and five strikeouts. He gave up two homers and threw 85 pitches, 55 for strikes with 13 swings and misses.

The Orioles won that game Tuesday, something they do often in Kremer starts. Since the beginning of the 2023 season, they are 25-8 in his outings.

Over his last 11 starts, beginning last Aug. 4, Kremer is 3-1 with a 3.09 ERA and the O’s are 9-2 in those games. In that span, Kremer has allowed only a .218 batting average and a .617 opponent OPS.

He has made one career start against Pittsburgh. On Aug. 5, 2022, he pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings on four hits with no walks and two strikeouts.

In 11 interleague games last season, Kremer was 5-2 with a 3.92 ERA and .638 OPS against.

Baltimore pitchers have fanned 81 batters so far in 2024, the most strikeouts through eight games in O's history. Only once in team history has the pitching staff fanned more than 80 batters through the first nine games - 2020 (85). O's pitching has posted a 1.04 WHIP through the first eight games, the fourth-best mark in MLB behind the Red Sox (0.93), Tigers (0.98), and Royals (1.00). O's pitchers are third in the AL at 9.94 strikeouts per nine innings, behind only Cleveland (10.94) and Boston (10.73).

Today, the Orioles face lefty Marco Gonzales (0-0, 1.80 ERA). He made his season debut Monday at Washington, allowing four hits and one run over five innings. He walked two and fanned two, throwing 77 pitches, 50 for strikes. Lefty batters went 1-for-5 against him in that game and right-handers were 3-for-13.

That was the Pirates debut for Gonzales, who went 4-1 with a 5.22 ERA last season over 10 starts for Seattle.

Against Washington, Gonzales threw four-seam fastballs 42 percent and averaged 90.2 mph, topping at 91.4 mph. He threw his cutter 31 percent, changeup 16 percent and curveball 12 percent. He was not missing many bats, getting just three whiffs on 38 swings by Nats batters. He got two of his three whiffs off his changeup. 

The O's are facing the Pirates in a series in Pittsburgh for only the fifth time in team history. The Birds dropped both games of a two-game series in their last trip to PNC Park from Sept. 26-27, 2017. Baltimore is 4-8 all-time in Pittsburgh with all 12 meetings coming since 2005.

The Orioles are off Monday before beginning a series in Boston at Fenway Park on Tuesday afternoon.