O's game blog: Tyler Wells on mound for O's in series, road trip finale

What has been a winning road trip will come to an end this afternoon when the Orioles (22-11) play at Atlanta (23-11) to wrap up this three-game series. 

The Orioles won 9-4 Friday night but lost 5-4 last night at Truist Park to fall to 7-3 in one-run games, 13-7 in road games and 3-1 in games versus National League teams.

The Orioles started the road trip going 3-1 at Detroit and then went 2-1 at Kansas City and are now 1-1 this weekend for a 6-3 mark on the 10-game trip.

Even with Saturday's loss, the Orioles have been winners in 14 of their last 18 games, 16 of their last 21, and 18 of their last 24. That .783 winning percentage (18-5) since April 10 heading into last night was the best in the big leagues over that stretch.

The Orioles have not lost successive games since April 8-9 at home against the New York Yankees, which was the last time they lost a series.

They have won seven straight series since, beating Oakland, the Chicago White Sox, Washington, Detroit, Boston, Detroit and Kansas City. They need a win today to make this eight straight series wins for the first time since they did that from July 21 to Aug. 13, 2014. The club record for most consecutive series wins is nine in a row from July 31 to Aug. 27, 1968.

The Braves and Orioles are meeting in their only scheduled series between the teams this season. The two last played in 2021, with Atlanta sweeping a three-game series in Baltimore. Atlanta and Baltimore have played 50 games since the advent of interleague play in 1997 with the Braves going 26-24 (.520) all-time against the Orioles. The two have played just one series at Truist Park, a three-game set in 2018 when Baltimore won two of three.

Saturday's game marked the Braves ninth sellout of the season and the 100th regular season sellout in Truist Park history, which began in 2017. It’s the 113th sellout, including postseason.

The O's Anthony Santander was 2-for-4 with two doubles, an RBI and two runs scored last night. Coupled with his two home runs Friday, he has successive games with multiple extra-base hits for the fourth time in his career. Last did it from Sept. 26-27 last season at Boston. He also has five straight multi-hit performances, extending his career-long streak.

In only four career games against Atlanta, Santander has hit .412/.412/1.235 (7-for-17) with two doubles, four home runs, six runs scored and eight RBIs. He played two games against the Braves in 2021 before the first two games of this series.

Right-hander Tyler Wells (2-1, 3.34 ERA) will try to pitch the Orioles to a win in the road trip finale. The team is 5-1 in his six games this year. On the season, he has allowed just 21 hits in 35 innings with a 0.771 WHIP to go with a 1.5 walk rate and 6.9 K rate.

On Tuesday at Kansas City, he gave up three hits and four runs in six innings, all three hits allowed were home runs. He has allowed two earned runs or less three times this year.

Right-hander Bryce Elder (3-0, 1.75 ERA) gets the start for Atlanta. The team is 5-1 in his starts this year and he pitched seven scoreless on 96 pitches Tuesday at Miami. He has reverse splits as lefty batters hit .140 against him with a .490 OPS and right-handers bat .284/.729 in 2023.