O's game blog: The road trip begins at first-place Houston

HOUSTON – The Orioles begin a tough two-city road trip tonight when they play the Houston Astros in the first of three games at Minute Maid Park. Houston holds the best record in the American League, and after three games there the Orioles play three at Cleveland against the American League Central leading Guardians.

The Orioles return home a week from tonight for a long homestand against Oakland, Toronto and Boston.

But after their remarkable win last night by 4-3 over the Chicago White Sox, the Orioles take a series victory and some momentum into this series. Kyle Stowers homered with two outs on an 0-2 pitch to tie the game in the ninth, and Anthony Santander’s single to deep center field produced the walk-off win in the 11^th.

The win marked their ninth walk-off win of the year and the Orioles are now 8-4 in extra innings, 18-21 in one-run games, and 3-51 when trailing after eight innings. They earned their 29th comeback win of the season, the most by the O’s since 2017 (34). Entering yesterday, their 29 comeback wins ranked tied for third in the AL. And the Orioles finished 5-2 (.714) against the White Sox this year, their best winning percentage in a single season against Chicago-AL since going 5-1 (.833) in 2014.

Houston beat Minnesota 6-3 Thursday to complete a three-game sweep, and Houston (81-45) has won four games in a row by a combined eight runs. Houston is leading the AL West by 12.5 games over Seattle and holds the best record in the AL by 3.5 games over the New York Yankees.

Houston has the best AL home record at 42-18, with seven straight wins at Minute Maid Park. And they are 27-8 at home since June 12. The Astros rank first in the league in team ERA (3.06) and rotation ERA (3.09) and are second in the major leagues to the Dodgers in both. Houston’s offense ranks third in the AL in runs, second in homers and second in fewest strikeouts by their hitters.

O’s right-hander Kyle Bradish (1-5, 6.25 ERA) gets the start tonight for Baltimore, his 16^th of the season. For the year, Bradish has allowed 92 hits in 72 innings with 27 walks and 73 strikeouts. He shows a 1.653 WHIP with a 3.4 walk rate and 9.1 strikeout rate. The Orioles are 9-6 in his starts.

Since coming off the injured list, Bradish is 0-1 with a 4.21 ERA in five starts. He has walked nine and fanned 27 in that span over 25 2/3 innings, allowing a .280 average against and .781 OPS. He has an ERA of 5.17 over his past three starts.

Lefties bat .252 with a .710 OPS against Bradish, but those numbers are much worse versus right-handed batters, at .357/1.017. In six road starts, he is 1-1 with a 6.18 ERA.

Houston’s starter is right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. (1-1, 2.45 ERA) who is making just his third start. McCullers recently rejoined the Astros rotation after making a few minor league rehab starts. He suffered a right flexor tendon strain pitching in Game 4 of the American League Division Series against the White Sox last October.

In his four minor league rehab games he posted a 6.75 ERA at Double-A and Triple-A over 13 1/3 innings.

His first big league outing of the season was a good one, as he threw six scoreless innings on two hits against Oakland Aug. 13. He threw 81 pitches. His last start was Aug. 19 at Atlanta, and he gave up three runs and seven hits over five innings on 91 pitches.

McCullers had a very strong 2021 season for Houston, reaching career highs in wins (13), starts (28), innings (162.1) and strikeouts (185), while also posting the best ERA (3.16) and opponent batting average (.205) of his career. And among qualifying AL pitchers, he finished his season ranking first in opponent batting average (.205), first in opponent OPS (.628) and second in ERA (3.16) and he also posted the fewest home runs per nine innings (0.72) and the highest groundball percentage (56.9) in the AL.

A 2017 American League All-Star, McCullers finished seventh in the AL Cy Young vote last season. On March 26, 2022, Houston signed him to a five-year extension for $85 million that will keep him under team control through the 2026 season.