O's game blog: Right-hander Kyle Bradish faces Toronto

As the Orioles look to get their first win in the four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays they send right-hander Kyle Bradish (3-5, 5.17 ERA) to the mound. Bradish has thrown back-to-back scoreless starts as he gets ready to face this team tonight.

The Orioles (71-64) fell back to 4 1/2 games out of the final AL wild card spot with a doubleheader loss by scores of 7-3 and 8-4 on Monday. The O's have lost three in a row, giving up seven homers and 20 runs in those games. 

Over longer stretches, they have won seven of 12, nine of 15, 12 of 20, 20 of 33 and 24 of their past 40 games.

The Orioles are now 39-27 at home and are 22-10 at home since June 22. 

They were 6-3 this season against Toronto, now 6-5, after going 5-14 with no series wins in the 2021 season series.

Adley Rutschman went 5-for-9 in the doubleheader and now has a .813 OPS through 87 games. He went 3-for-5 in the second game with a double and tagged his 10th homer of the year in the ninth inning. He tied a career high with three hits (he's done it four times, the last on Aug. 19 against Boston) and has hit safely in his last four games and registered his third multi-hit game during that stretch. He also recorded his 21st multi-hit game of the season.

Rutschman is third among rookie position players with 4.2 bWAR, according to Baseball-Reference.com. That mark is currently the best by a rookie catcher in O's history and third-best by any rookie in O's history, trailing Orioles Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr.'s 4.7 bWAR in 1982 and John Means' 4.4 bWAR in 2019. He is the ninth catcher in major league history (with a minimum of 50 percent of his games played at the catcher position) with at least 10 home runs (10) and 25 doubles (27) in his rookie season, and first since the Cubs' Geovany Soto in 2008, and he is the first O's rookie catcher to do so.

Second baseman Rougned Odor hit his 12th homer of the season in the second inning of the second game yesterday, and his first since Aug. 9 versus Toronto, a stretch of 22 games between home runs. 

The Orioles hit two homers in each game of the doubleheader, and all four were solo shots. They have hit nine homers their last four games and 14 in the past seven.

Toronto (75-59) is now 11-1 in its last 12 road games. That is its best 12-game road stretch since another 11-1 run from May 4 to June 5, 2014. Overall, the Blue Jays have won five in a row, seven of eight and 14 of their last 19 games.

At 16 games over the .500 mark, Toronto is enjoying its best run since finishing the 2021 season 20 over at 91-71.

The Orioles could use some clutch hits. They went 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position in the doubleheader and are batting .119 with RISP (8-for-67) over the last 11 games.

Bradish threw eight scoreless innings on the last road trip at Houston, allowing just two hits, and then followed that up with seven scoreless at Cleveland while allowing just two hits. Over seven starts since July 29, his ERA is 2.66 and he allows a .615 OPS. The Orioles are 11-6 in his starts.

Right-hander Mitch White (1-5, 4.67 ERA) gets the start for Toronto. He was traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers to Toronto on Aug. 2. Since the deal, he is 0-3 with a 7.04 ERA in five starts for the Blue Jays. In his first three starts with his new club, his ERA was 3.38. But over his past two games, his ERA is 12.10 as he has allowed 16 hits and 13 runs over 9 2/3 innings.