O's game blog: O's look for another AL East series win against Toronto

The Orioles are looking for another series win tonight as they host the Toronto Blue Jays to wrap up a three-game series. Toronto won in 10 innings 6-3 Tuesday night while the O’s won 7-0 last night on a four-pitcher, five-hitter.

It started with the starter.

Right-hander Dean Kremer pitched six scoreless on five hits with five strikeouts. He improved to 12-5 with an ERA of 4.31. He has an ERA of 3.06 over his past nine starts. Jacob Webb, Yennier Cano and Shintaro Fujinami finished the outing retiring nine in a row. Webb has thrown 8 2/3 scoreless on two hits with 12 strikeouts in nine games as an Oriole.

AL wins leaders:

13 - Zach Eflin, TB
12 - Dean Kremer & Kyle Gibson, O's, Chris Bassitt, Toronto

Last night marked the eighth shutout of the year for the Orioles. They've thrown 23 shutouts since the start of 2022 - fourth-most in the AL and tied for 10th in MLB.

Kremer is one of 10 MLB pitchers and one of four in the AL, with at least 12 wins. Baltimore is one of two teams with multiple pitchers having 12 or more wins along with Atlanta (Strider & Morton). Kyle Gibson and Kremer are the first pair of O's teammates with 12+ wins in a season since Wei-Yin Chen (16), Bud Norris (15), and Chris Tillman (13) all did so in 2014.

Anthony Santander hit two solo homers in Wednesday's win, he hit No. 22 and 23 to lead the team. It’s his third multi-homer game of this year and 13^th of his career.

The Orioles are 9-3 versus Toronto, outscoring the Blue Jays 70-37. A win tonight would give Baltimore 11 straight non-losing AL East series for the first time since from Aug. 1-Sept. 30, 2012. They would be 9-0-2 the last 11 series and in that time they are 23-11 in division games.

A win tonight would tie the longest such active division streak in MLB with the Braves, who extended their NL East streak to 11 by taking two of three against the Mets earlier this week. The Orioles are 25-15 (.625) against the AL East this season.

The O's have a 3.56 ERA since July 1, the third-best team ERA in MLB during that time behind Toronto (3.24) and Seattle (3.25). The team has gone 30-16 (.652) over that period, tied for the second-most wins with Los Angeles-NL and trailing only Seattle (33).

Right-hander Kyle Gibson (12-7, 4.97 ERA) gets tonight’s start for the Orioles. On the West Coast road trip, he gave up a combined 13 runs and 21 hits in 10 1/3 versus Oakland and Seattle. But in the six starts before the trip he had five quality starts, pitching to an ERA of 3.86.

Gibson is 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA in two games this season against the Blue Jays, allowing two runs over 13 innings. In seven starts in the AL East in 2023, he is 4-2 with a 3.14 ERA and .602 OPS against. The Orioles are 15-11 in his 26 starts.

Right-hander José Berríos (9-8, 3.39 ERA) goes for Toronto. He has allowed two earned runs or less 17 times this year and has a 3.08 ERA in the second half.

Berrios has gone 5-1 with a 2.10 ERA over his last 10 road starts. And his 2.84 ERA since April 14 is the best in the AL in that span with the Orioles' Kyle Bradish second at 3.07.

In 13 career starts, Berrios has never lost to the Orioles, going 10-0 with a 2.66 ERA. He has 10 quality starts against the Orioles, pitched 7 2/3 scoreless against them in June and his clubs have won his last 12 starts against Baltimore.