The “no sweeps in the Adley Rutschman era” streak is in danger today.
This has been a crummy series so far. It is less maddening that it is coming against the Dodgers, a team that has been great this year and has a multi-year track record of greatness, than it would be if the Orioles were inexplicably playing poorly against some kind of bad team. Still, it will be fun for its own sake if the team can keep its not-swept streak rolling, and fun in the 2023 season context if the team can at worst hold pace with the Rays headed into a four-game set that follows starting tomorrow.
As the starting pitcher today, Dean Kremer is going to have a lot to say in what happens with the Orioles chances. He has made two very good starts so far in July, including a six inning outing against the Marlins coming out of the All-Star break his last time around. The Dodgers offense is tougher than the Marlins offense, so, yeah. Good luck to him. He’ll probably need it.
Orioles batters really stunk against a poor pitcher, Michael Grove, last night. They’ll be facing someone better today in lefty Julio Urías. With about a strikeout per inning and a K/BB ratio of 4.67, a lot looks pretty good about Urías’s season to date. One thing that doesn’t is his home run rate, with 14 allowed in 70.1 innings. Ten of these homers were hit by righty batters, which is probably less of a concern for him here with Walltimore as the backdrop.
Pre-game news: Cedric Mullins is back on the injured list. Bummer.
Orioles lineup
- Austin Hays – LF
- Anthony Santander – RF
- Ryan Mountcastle – 1B
- Aaron Hicks – CF
- Jordan Westburg – 2B
- Gunnar Henderson – DH
- Ramón Urías – 3B
- James McCann – C
- Jorge Mateo – SS
That’s about as much of a forfeit lineup as this team is capable of deploying. Such lineups are a little bit more easy to take when the team is not trying to stave off a sweep.
Dodgers lineup
- Mookie Betts – 2B
- Freddie Freeman – 1B
- Max Muncy – 3B
- Will Smith – DH
- David Peralta – LF
- Jason Heyward – RF
- James Outman – CF
- Miguel Rojas – SS
- Austin Barnes – C