O's game blog: The series and road trip finale at Cleveland

Coming off Wednesday’s 4-0 win at Cleveland, the Orioles now have a chance to win this series and end their road trip to Houston and Cleveland with a pair of series wins. They will have a 4-2 road trip if they win the series finale tonight.

The Orioles (68-61) were eight games over .500 once this year, after the second game at Houston, and would be eight over with a victory tonight.

They have won four of six, six of nine and nine of the last 15 games. Over longer stretches, they have won 17 of 27, 21 of 34, 33 of 50 and are 44-26 (.620) since June 11. The Orioles are 47-31 (.603) since June 1 and are 61-47 (.565) since May 1.

They are two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays (70-59) for third place in the American League East. More importantly, they're also two games in back of the Jays for the third AL wild card spot. Toronto is off today and begins a series at Pittsburgh on Friday. On Monday the Orioles and Toronto play a doubleheader at Camden Yards to begin a three-day, four-game series.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish (2-5, 5.63 ERA) will be making his 17^th start in tonight's series finale. On Friday at Houston he pitched what manager Brandon Hyde said was the best game by any O’s starter this year. Over eight innings he blanked the Astros on just two hits with two walks, throwing six strikeouts on 96 pitches.

“For me, it was for sure (the best this year),” said Hyde over the weekend. “How cool is that, one of our young starters being able to do that. Our guys are growing in front of us. They’re developing. They are getting great experiences.”

Bradish used his slider on 51 percent of his pitches that night, getting whiffs 13 times on 29 swings against that pitch. He added use of his four-seam fastball on 34 percent of his pitches, and the pitch averaged 95.3 mph that night and topped at 96.5 mph, per Statcast. Bradish usually throws his slider 28 percent, so he went big to that pitch that night.

After that game he said he had good stuff throughout his night at Minute Maid Park, and that around mid-game his stuff ticked up even a notch higher.

“Fastball was really good. Had good life, both sides of the plate, and slider was good early and then it got a lot better as the game went on," he said. "I think my fastball was playing up a lot, and that helps the slider, and then was working with the changeup, too, to get some backdoor chase on that one.”

Friday’s game was the latest good outing by Bradish, who is 1-1 with a 3.21 ERA over his past six starts. In that span he walked 11 and fanned 33 over 33 2/3 innings with a 1.218 WHIP, a .240 batting average against and .677 opponent OPS. He allowed three earned runs or fewer in each of the six starts, three times allowing two earned runs or fewer. He has thrown 93 or more pitches in four of his past five games.

Right-hander Shane Bieber (8-7, 3.02 ERA), the 2020 American League Cy Young Award Winner, pitches for Cleveland. He is on a real roll, allowing two earned runs or fewer in six straight starts. In that span, he is 4-1 with a 1.56 ERA, with six walks to 43 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings, and he has thrown seven or more innings four times in this stretch.

Lefty batters hit .213 with a .564 OPS off Bieber and right-handers bat .250/.652. He is 3-4 with a 3.27 ERA in nine home starts.

Gunnar Henderson made his major league debut last night and homered in his second O’s at-bat. He hit a 2-2 slider 429 feet to right-center as part of a 2-for-4 night. Henderson became the fourth Oriole to homer in his debut game, joining Larry Haney (July 27, 1966), Jonathan Schoop (Sept. 25, 2013) and Trey Mancini Sept. 20, 2016).

The O’s are still looking for more consistent offense, however, scoring just 11 runs in five games on this trip, and 31 runs over the past 10 games.

O’s batters have consistently elevated starter pitch counts this trip:

* Friday, Houston’s Lance McCullers Jr. was at 63 pitches after three innings and 80 pitches after four.

* Saturday, Houston’s José Urquidy was at 69 through three innings and 89 after four.

* Sunday, Justin Verlander of the Astros was at 60 pitches through three innings.

* Tuesday, Cleveland’s Cal Quantrill was at 55 after three innings.

* Last night, Cleveland’s Triston McKenzie was at 64 through three and 86 after four.