The Orioles’ top of the rotation faces Houston rookie Jake Bloss, making his MLB debut.
Whew, it’s been an insane month of baseball. Since May 27, the Orioles have played only AL or NL East teams, with just one series against a losing team (Tampa Bay). They’ve had exactly two days off in that stretch, and also lost two key pieces of their team to elbow injuries (Kyle Bradish and Danny Coulombe, although Coulombe could be back in September).
Yet despite these hurdles, Baltimore is 16-7 in that stretch, including a glorious series-capping 17-5 demolition of the Yankees on Thursday afternoon in the Bronx. Now boasting the best run differential in baseball and an MLB-leading 119 home runs, the O’s are just a half-game back of the AL East frontrunners and playing a massively exciting brand of baseball. So, definitely weathering adversity.
But, as Mark Brown said in his series preview, the Orioles can’t afford to let off the gas as they head into the All-Star break, not with the AL East race neck-in-neck right now. While the Yankees are off to play the fairly competent Braves, the Orioles travel to Houston to take on the Astros.
It’s fair to say the 2022 World Series champs have been underperformers so far, with a 35-40 record and a 23% chance of making the playoffs, according to Baseball Reference. They’ve been hit with pitching injuries (tell us about it), with Justin Verlander, J.P. France and Cristian Javier all on the shelf.
But their offense is also not what it once was: although they’re prolific at getting bat to ball, with an AL-leading 116 hits, they’re only seventh of fifteen teams in runs scored and thirteenth in walks. The biggest hole in the lineup was at first base, where José Abreu, the 2020 AL MVP, was just unceremoniously DFA’d after posting a .124 average and .361 OPS. The Astros’ best hitter, Kyle Tucker, is still on the IL after taking a ball off the shin, and other than Yordan Alvarez and José Altuve, no other Astro is OPS’ing over .750.
This to say, hopefully this is a lineup that will make Grayson Rodriguez look like the ace he’s evolving into. Astonishingly (to me, at least), tonight will be the 24-year-old righty’s first time pitching back in his home state of Texas since his MLB debut against the Rangers in April 2023. Grayson has been impressively consistent this year, with an 8-2 record and 77 K’s in 70.1 innings. He’s had only two bad starts in 12: if you took those stinkers out, he’d have an ERA of 2.08.
Despite the righty Rodriguez’s reverse splits (.262/.320/.433 RHB to .205//.284/.323 LHB), Houston has four lefties in the lineup tonight. No Astro has more than 3 AB’s against Rodriguez, and the only who’s given him trouble is Alex Bregman (2-for-3).
Meanwhile, the Orioles are going up against an unknown quantity in Jake Bloss, a 22-year-old right-hander. A third-round pick in 2023, Bloss lit up Double-A this season with a 1.61 ERA over 44 2/3 innings while posting just a 0.72 WHIP. Forced into action by starter injuries (again, tell us about it), the Astros’ No. 10 prospect is skipping Triple-A entirely to make his MLB debut tonight. Bold move, Cotton. I hope the Orioles pose a lot bigger challenge for Bloss than Double-A hitters.
Orioles lineup
1. Gunnar Henderson SS (L)
2. Adley Rutschman DH (S)
3. Ryan O’Hearn LF (L)
4. Ryan Mountcastle 1B (R)
5. Anthony Santander RF (S)
6. Jordan Westburg (R)
7. Cedric Mullins CF (L)
8. Jorge Mateo 2B (R)
9. James McCann (R)
Grayson Rodriguez RHP (8-2, 3.20 ERA, 77 K)
Astros lineup
1. José Altuve 2B (R)
2. Alex Bregman 3B (R)
3. Yordan Alvarez DH (L)
4. Yainer Díaz C (R)
5. Jake Meyers CF (R)
6. Jon Singleton 1B (L)
7. Mauricio Dubón SS (R)
8. Joey Loperfido LF (L)
9. Trey Cabbage RF (L)
Jake Bloss RHP (-)