O's game blog: The series-deciding game for the Orioles and Yankees

The Orioles (48-25) and the New York Yankees (51-25) are now separated by just 1.5 games in the standings with New York in first place heading into today's third and deciding game of the current series.

The Yankees won 4-2 on Tuesday night and the Orioles won 7-6 in 10 innings last night. The Orioles are 4-2 versus the Yankees this year and five of those six games were decided by two runs or fewer with Baltimore going 3-2 in those games.

A win today would give the Orioles back-to-back series wins over the Phillies and Yankees after losing the first game of each series.

The Orioles have had just one day off since May 31 but have gone 13-6 in this span against the Rays, Jays, Braves, Phillies and Yankees.

The Orioles are 18-7 (.720) in games this year versus American League East teams while the Yankees are 10-11 (.476).

If the Orioles win today they extend another streak. They have not lost an AL East series in their past 21 series, going 15-0-6 in those series and 48-23 (.676) in the 71 games during this run.

Since the start of last season, the Orioles are 50-27 (.649) in division games.

Against the Yankees, they have allowed 16 runs this year in winning four of the six games. Baltimore pitchers have a 2.50 ERA against New York batters in 2024 and have allowed a batting average of .199 and .613 OPS to the Yankees.

The Orioles are 8-3 versus the Yankees since July 5, 2023. Since the start of last season, they are 11-8 against New York. 

Now 23 games over .500 for the season, the Orioles have won three of their past four games and also nine of 12, 14 of 20 and 19 of the last 26 overall.

On the mound today they start lefty Cole Irvin (6-3, 3.03 ERA) who is making his 12th start of the season. In three June starts, Irvin has an ERA of 3.57 over 17 2/3 innings and opponent batters have hit .329 with an .851 OPS against him in this span.

The Orioles are 8-3 this year in Irvin's starts. He allows a .562 OPS the first time through a batting order with an OPS of .714 the second time through and .814 the third.

He has not faced the Yankees yet this season. Last year in two games he went 0-1 with a 10.50 ERA. In three career games, he is 0-2 with an 8.31 ERA against New York.

Today, the Orioles face the AL ERA leader in the Yankees, right-hander Luis Gil (9-1, 2.03 ERA). In 14 starts he has thrown 80 innings and allowed just 39 hits and five home runs. He has a WHIP of 0.975 with a 4.4 walk rate and 10.8 strikeout rate.

The Yankees are 12-2 in his games.

Gil has been tough on both left and right-handed batters. Lefty hit .132 off him with an OPS of .468 while right-handers bat .150/.517.

On May 1 in Baltimore, Gil pitched 6 1/3 scoreless on two hits versus the Orioles with one walk and five strikeouts on 95 pitches.

Gil took an ERA of 4.01 into that game. But he has been a tremendous roll ever since, going 8-0 with a 1.14 ERA his last nine starts, allowing one run or less eight times in this stretch. He has four scoreless outings and seven quality starts in this span.

Gil has thrown his four-seam fastball 55 percent on the season at an average velocity of 96.6 mph and allowing a batting average against the pitch of .134. He  throws his changeup 29 percent with an average against of .162. And uses his slider 16 percent, allowing a .137 average. 

After today's game the Orioles head to Houston to begin a weekend series there on Friday night.