Baltimore Orioles vs. Houston Astros Pick & Prediction SEPTEMBER 20th 2023
The Orioles' offense again carried the weight on Tuesday, covering for occasionally spotty pitching and surprisingly erratic defense in Baltimore's 9-5 road victory over the Houston Astros that clinched the three-game series.
Baltimore will aim to sweep the set involving American League division leaders during a Wednesday matinee.
Jacob Hoffman
The Orioles (95-56) maintained their 2 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the Tampa Bay Rays in part by bashing four home runs -- two from Austin Hays. Ryan O'Hearn and rookie Heston Kjerstad also homered for the Orioles, who benefitted from a critical safety squeeze by catcher James McCann to key a two-run sixth inning.
"We didn't play our best baseball," Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. "We kicked a couple of balls that hurt us a little bit. We don't usually beat ourselves, but our offense picked us up. We did some good things."
Kyle Bradish (11-7, 3.12 ERA) will start for the Orioles on Wednesday. The right-hander took his first loss since July 26 on Thursday against the Rays after allowing four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts over seven innings. It marked his sixth consecutive start of at least six innings and his 13th in 14 outings dating back to June 25.
Bradish is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA over two career starts against the Astros. He worked eight scoreless innings against Houston on Aug. 26, 2022, then delivered another 8 2/3 shutout frames vs. the Astros on Sept. 22, 2022. Bradish yielded just four hits and two walks while striking out 16 in those outings.
Right-hander Cristian Javier (9-4, 4.74 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the Astros.
He is winless over his past four starts, going 0-2 with a 6.16 ERA in that span. Javier took a 4-2 road loss to the Kansas City Royals on Friday when he allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walk with six strikeouts over five innings.
Javier went 2-0 over five starts in August despite pitching to a 6.17 ERA and .922 opponents' OPS with 16 walks and 16 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings.
Javier is 1-1 with a 2.04 ERA over five career appearances (two starts) against the Orioles. In his lone appearance against Baltimore this year, he allowed two runs on four hits and three walks with three strikeouts over five innings in an 8-2 road victory on Aug. 9.
A late-season collapse at home might ultimately cost the Astros a postseason berth. With the Tuesday loss, Houston (84-68) had its lead in the AL West shaved to a half-game over both the Texas Rangers (83-68) and the Seattle Mariners (83-68).
The Astros dropped to 38-39 at home with four games left on the home schedule.
On Sept. 11, Houston entered a stretch with nine of 12 games against the two worst teams in the majors, the Oakland A's and the Royals. The Astros have won just two of eight games since.
"We've got four games here left to figure it out," Astros manager Dusty Baker said. "I don't know exactly what it is. We've tried to put our finger on it, and we don't know."
--Field Level Media
Baltimore Orioles vs. Houston Astros Recap SEP 20TH 2023
Mauricio Dubon delivered a walk-off RBI single Wednesday afternoon for the host Houston Astros, who maintained their share of first place in the American League West by earning a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
The Astros (85-68) salvaged the finale of the three-game series shortly after the AL West's co-leaders, the Texas Rangers, routed the Boston Red Sox 15-5 earlier in the day.
The AL East-leading Orioles (95-57) had their four-game winning streak snapped. Baltimore entered Wednesday 2 1/2 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Houston needed just six pitches to score the winning run off Danny Coulombe (5-2) in the bottom of the ninth. Yainer Diaz doubled on Coulombe's first pitch and moved to third when Chas McCormick grounded out to second. Dubon singled to right on the next pitch.
Ryan Pressly (4-5) threw a perfect top of the ninth to earn the win for Houston.
Orioles starter Kyle Bradish struck out nine and allowed just two hits over six scoreless innings. Reliever Jacob Webb tossed a perfect seventh before the Astros scored the tying run in the eighth. Shintaro Fujinami walked two of the three batters he faced and Jeremy Pena's double off Michael Baumann scored Dubon.
Astros starter Cristian Javier allowed one run on three hits and two walks while striking out 11 over five innings. The strikeouts tied a season high for Javier, who also whiffed 11 against the Los Angeles Angels on May 10.
The Orioles scored their lone run in the first, when Adley Rutschman doubled with one out and came home on Anthony Santander's single. Javier retired 14 of the last 17 batters he faced.
Santander had two hits and a stolen base.
Bradish issued two walks while throwing at least six scoreless innings for the fifth time this season. He lowered his ERA to 3.01, the third-lowest mark in the AL.
--Field Level Media