O's game blog: Trying to get even in the series at Milwaukee

The Orioles lost the opening game of a series five times in the month of May. They would win two of those series, lose two and split a four-game set against the Los Angeles Angels.

Last night’s 4-3 loss in 10 innings at Milwaukee was their sixth series-opening loss in the last nine such games. In May, the Orioles lost the series opener to both Tampa Bay and the New York Yankees, but won the last two games to take those series. They lost series openers – and later the series itself – against Texas and Cleveland.

They hit the 60-game mark last night, going 37-23, and now have 102 games remaining in the 2023 regular season. With a .617 win percentage, they hold the third-best record in MLB and are playing at a pace to win 100 games over a full year.

O's pitchers struck out a season-high 16 batters Tuesday night, their most since also fanning 16 in nine innings on Sept. 20, 2020 vs. Tampa Bay. The O’s staff, at 9.26 strikeouts per nine innings, ranks fifth in the American League in K rate behind Houston (9.67), Toronto (9.61), Minnesota (9.56) and the Chicago White Sox (9.47).

Outfielder Aaron Hicks hit a two-run home run in the second inning to tie the game, his first since joining the O's. He’s reached safely in each of his first five games with Baltimore and has hit safely in four of them, batting .400/.500/.733 (6- for-15) with one triple, one home run, five runs scored, three RBIs and three walks with two multi-hit efforts.

The O's are in the middle of a six-game road trip, which began with three games in San Francisco (2-1) over the weekend. After the off-day Monday, the Orioles are facing Milwaukee for three games through tomorrow (0-1). Baltimore is 20-11 (.645) away from Oriole Park, the second-best road record in MLB this season behind Atlanta (20-10, .667). The Birds went 38-43 (.469) on the road last year, 14^th-best in MLB, after going a combined 114-237 (.325) away from Camden Yards from 2017-21.

Right-hander Dean Kremer (6-2, 4.43 ERA) will make his 13^th start tonight, looking for his third straight quality start and his fifth in his past seven games. The Orioles are 8-4 in his starts.

Kremer’s ERA was 6.67 over his first six starts as he allowed a .314 batting average and .908 OPS, In his past six starts, he has a 2.55 ERA, allowing a .261 batting average and .686 OPS. The Orioles are 5-1 in this span, and Kremer has allowed two earned runs or less four times.

Right-hander Corbin Burnes (4-4, 3.75 ERA) gets the call for Milwaukee. He is not pitching as well as he did in a long run of success, going 27-14 with an ERA of 2.62 and a 0.964 WHIP from 2020 through 2022 over 73 games. He finished sixth for the National League Cy Young Award in 2020, was the winner in 2021 and was seventh last year.

In 2021, Burnes became the third pitcher in franchise history to win a Cy Young Award, joining Rollie Fingers (1981) and Pete Vuckovich (1982). He became the first pitcher in franchise history to lead his league in ERA.

Burnes has pitched better recently, with an ERA of 2.77 his past two starts, allowing four earned runs over 13 innings with a .133 batting average and .445 OPS.

He pitched well against the Orioles last April 13, throwing seven scoreless innings on three hits and 97 pitches in his only career outing against the club. In three career appearances against AL East teams, he is 1-0 with a 2.29 ERA.

A few notes from Norfolk and Delmarva: After their win on Sunday, the Triple-A Norfolk Tides (40-17) have won 10 of their last 15 games. Norfolk's lead over Durham in the International League’s East Division sits at 7 1/2 games. The Tides lead St. Paul by 6 1/2 games for the league lead and their magic number to clinch the first half is 12. With available records since 1994, this is the Tides' best start in franchise history through their first 57 games, topping 1995 and 2009, both 36-21.

For the second straight game Sunday, outfielder Colton Cowser recorded multiple hits, going 2-for-2 with two runs, a double, a home run and two walks. It was Cowser's 15th multi-hit game and extended his hitting streak to seven games and he’s hit safely in 10 of his previous 11 games. In that span dating back to May 7, he's hitting .486 (17-for-35) with 13 runs, three doubles, three home runs, eight RBIs and 12 walks.

Connor Norby had another multi-game Sunday, going 2-for-5 with two runs and a walk. It was his 22nd multi-hit game, taking the team lead from Jordan Westburg. Since April 28, Norby's hit safely in 27 of his previous 34 games without going hitless in back-to-back games. In that span he's batting .309 (47-for-152) with 27 runs, 15 doubles, four home runs, 19 RBIs, 10 walks and two hit-by-pitches while slashing .360/.487/.847.

In Single-A Delmarva's loss last night, infielder Carter Young led the offense with a career-high five hits. Following his 4-for-4 performance on Sunday, Young has a base hit in nine consecutive at-bats and has also reached in ten straight plate appearances. 

Young, selected in round 17 of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Vanderbilt, was batting just .188 before these two games and is now batting .231.