O's game blog: Wrapping up the homestand versus Tampa Bay

The Orioles' six-game homestand ends today. They won two of three from the White Sox and have split two games with the Rays heading into the series finale. The Orioles won 2-0 with their ninth shutout Friday night and lost 7-1 Saturday.

The Orioles (82-61) have fallen back into second-place by a 1/2 game behind the Yankees (82-60) with 19 games remaining.

The Orioles have won four of six and eight of 14 and are 42-32 at home and 24-23 since the All-Star break.

Tampa Bay, wrapping up the first series of a 10-game road trip today, has lost six of 10, eight of 13 and 10 of 16 games. The Rays are winless in their past five series, going 0-3-2 and are 22-24 since the break.

O's center fielder Cedric Mullins launched his 15th home run of the season, a solo shot in the sixth inning Saturday and has homered twice in his last five games. He has reached safely in his last nine games since Aug. 29, batting .385/.529/.654 (10-for-26) in that span.

Anthony Santander lined a single in the fifth inning and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games since Aug. 28. His next homer will be No. 40 and he will become the eighth switch-hitter in MLB history with 40 and the eighth player in O's history to hit 40 or more in a season.

The O's up-and-down offense was on an up for a five-game stretch through last Tuesday. They scored 38 runs in that span, averaging 7.6 runs per game while producing an .863 OPS.

Now in their past three games, they've uns, they've scored one, two and one run. That is 1.3 runs per game while batting .189 with a team OPS of .549 and going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

The Rays today can win a series at Camden Yards for the first time since Aug 27-29, 2021. They are 0-4-2 in their last six, tying the longest stretch without a series victory in the venue in franchise history (also Aug. 19, 2003–Aug. 11, 2005, 0-4-2).

The Rays six-run margin of victory yesterday was their largest over the Orioles since Sept. 15, 2023 at Camden Yards, a 7-1 Tampa Bay win started by Zach Eflin. It marked Tampa Bay's fourth road win of the season by 6+ runs, including its first since a season-best 13-0 victory on July 25 at Toronto. The Rays recorded their first multi-homer effort against Baltimore since Sept. 17, 2023 (3 HR), snapping an 11-game streak with 1 HR or fewer (5 HR total in span).

Right-hander Corbin Burnes (13-7, 3.19 ERA), looking to get on a late-season pitching roll, will make his 29th start. The Orioles are 18-10 in the first 28. Burnes had an ERA of 8.71 over a four-start span, but in the last two games, he's allowed two earned runs (eight runs total) over 10 innings with one walk and eight strikeouts.

In two starts against Tampa Bay, he is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 0.846 WHIP. Those are also his career numbers versus the Rays.

Righty Zack Littell (5-9, 4.04 ERA) will make his 26th start and fourth versus Baltimore. Littell gave up four runs his last start over four innings. But in his past five games, he is 2-2 with a 2.36 ERA. In three games on the season against the Orioles, he is 0-2 with a 3.71 ERA.