O's offense trying to pass the test of the Braves strong starters this weekend

The Orioles offense, while the team has gone 1-1 this weekend in Atlanta, has proven to be a real challenge for one of the best starting rotations in baseball.

Lefty Max Fried took the mound Friday night with a 2-0 record and 0.45 ERA, allowing one run in 20 innings for the season. Right-hander Spencer Strider faced the Orioles last night, entering at 4-0 with a 2.57 ERA.

The Orioles pinned a loss on Fried Friday night but could not quite do it with Strider in last night’s 5-4 loss, a game that turned in Atlanta’s favor on Kevin Pillar’s two-run, pinch-hit homer off Danny Coulombe in the last of the eighth. Pillar, who has a career .704 OPS, is a career .321 hitter with an OPS of .867 against the Orioles. His homer in Saturday's game was his 15^th in 92 games against the club.

But earlier, even while they fanned 10 times against Strider, one of the best strikeout pitchers in the game, the Orioles battled him pretty hard. He was at 95 pitches and out of the game after five innings.

In two games this weekend, Fried and Strider have a combined 5.73 ERA versus the Orioles.

Their peskiness was very evident in the top of the fourth Saturday night.

Adley Rutschman grounded out, but on the sixth pitch in the at-bat. Ryan Mountcastle singled on the sixth pitch and Anthony Santander’s double put runners on second and third and came on the fifth pitch, a 96 mph fastball. Gunnar Henderson then struck out on the ninth pitch, a changeup. Strider showed respect for the kid, throwing him just two fastballs in that sequence. Henderson made him work, and maybe the long inning and the battles the hitters were having against him helped Adam Frazier deliver a clutch, two-out, two-run single to left that gave Baltimore the lead. Frazier did what he could with a 98 mph fastball when behind 1-2 on the count, going with the pitch and hitting it into left for two runs. An impressive inning against an impressive pitcher.

That inning and this series have shown us that the Orioles offense can not only put up numbers against the worst teams and pitchers, but can battle some of the best too.

A win today would give them eight straight series victories. They are 3-2 in 2023 in rubber-match games.

On the farm Saturday night: Triple-A Norfolk keeps winning, and notched a 5-0 home shutout of Durham. Ryan Watson went the first four innings, Nick Vespi pitched the fifth and got the win and Chris Vallimont went the last four to complete the shutout, the second of the year for the Tides. The three pitchers teamed on a five-hitter with seven walks and 13 strikeouts.  

The Tides are now 23-8 and 13-3 at home.

Jordan Westburg went 2-for-4 with a solo homer. That was No. 8 for Westburg, tying him with teammate Josh Lester and Double-A Bowie’s Heston Kjerstad for the organization homer lead.

Westburg, batting .346 with an OPS of 1.019, now has 12 multi-hit games. Ryan O’Hearn, just optioned out this week by the Orioles, went 1-for-3 with a walk. Connor Norby added a two-run single. During this series, Norby is hitting .381 (8-for-21) with three runs, three doubles, two RBIs and a walk while hitting .435/.524/.959.

Westburg has an eight-game hitting streak and is batting .429 (15-for-35) with 11 runs, two doubles, three home runs, 10 RBIs and two walks while slashing .459/.743/1.202. The home run was the 26th of his Norfolk career, ranking ninth all-time as an Orioles affiliate, and it was also his 50th career home run. He has surpassed 300 career hits.

High-A Aberdeen beat Brooklyn 7-2 as Max Wagner and Isaac DeLeon homered. Jackson Holliday went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. In 10 games with the IronBirds, he is now batting .297/.435/.459/.894 with a double, triple, homer, four RBIs, nine walks and 10 strikeouts. In 23 games this season between two teams, Holliday is batting .352 with a 1.066 OPS.

Single-A Delmarva beat Carolina 5-2 to improve to 14-10. The Shorebirds’ 18-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo went 2-for-5 with a triple and three RBIs. He’s batting .318 with an .877 OPS on the season.

Double-A Bowie lost 10-4 at home versus Erie to fall to 7-17. Kjerstad, Coby Mayo and César Prieto had two hits each, while Billy Cook homered and drove in three runs. Kjerstad is batting .300 with a 1.044 OPS. Mayo is batting .277/.883 and Prieto is at .361/.884. Zach Watson also homered for the Baysox.