Can the Orioles win consecutive games and tease us into feeling slightly better about them for a day or two?
With one game already in the books as a win from Friday’s rain-soaked low-scoring affair, the Orioles only need to win again today to grab themselves a series win against the Angels. It shouldn’t be all that hard. The Angels aren’t all that good – though they have been better lately – and the Orioles just need to play as good as people think they should have been to be a better team. But as we know, extended stretches of good baseball are, in fact, incredibly hard for the 2025 Orioles.
One reason for that is that they have been absolutely terrible against left-handed pitching, particularly left-handed starting pitching. Guess what is standing in their way both in today’s game and tomorrow’s? A left-handed starting pitcher! Today, the opponent is Tyler Anderson, who brings a 3.99 ERA into the game. Anderson has been much worse on the road than he has been at home, which would be nice if the Orioles can take advantage of that.
The lineup will have one new name in it with that “finally start hitting lefties, for goodness sakes’” goal in mind. Gary Sánchez made a return from the injured list ahead of Saturday’s game after a week-plus rehab stint with Triple-A Norfolk. Sánchez was completely hitless against lefties for the season before getting placed on the IL at the end of April with wrist inflammation. Pretty bad! I think he deserves another six weeks or so of occasional play to see if he can do anything good. If he’s still doing badly by August, he should be gone.
A variety of other Orioles need to hit better against lefties as well, or even start hitting at all. The O’s won on Friday even while being out-hit by the Angels. They can’t count on that being the case on a regular basis.
Orioles lineup
- Jackson Holliday – 2B
- Adley Rutschman – C
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Jordan Westburg – 3B
- Ramón Laureano – RF
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- Gary Sánchez – DH
- Dylan Carlson – LF
- Coby Mayo – 1B
The originally-posted Orioles lineup had Ryan O’Hearn batting fifth and playing right field in this game. He was scratched about an hour before game time, which the O’s announced is due to left ankle discomfort. This stemmed from an odd baserunning play from LA’s Zach Neto in the seventh inning last night that ended up with O’Hearn’s ankles getting clipped on Neto’s way into first base.
Tomoyuki Sugano is making the start for the Orioles. He’s been alternating between good games and not-so-good ones for the last month or so. He’s due for a good one here against the Angels, which doesn’t mean that’s what he’ll deliver. Maybe he’s got their number: The Angels got to Sugano for just one run in 7.1 innings back on May 9. Or maybe they’ll have learned something about him from that outing and they’ll be able to do better against him this time around.
Angels lineup
- Zach Neto – SS
- Nolan Schanuel – 1B
- Mike Trout – DH
- Taylor Ward – LF
- Logan O’Hoppe – C
- Jo Adell – CF
- LaMonte Wade Jr. – RF
- Luis Rengifo – 3B
- Christian Moore – 2B
The 1-6 hitters here in this Angels lineup all have an OPS+ of 99 or better. It’s not a terrible lineup, although the bad hitters are pretty bad and the team’s reserves have also mostly been bad. That’s why they’re only batting .227 as a team and getting on base at just a .288 clip. Hard to even imagine a .288 team OBP. But, you know, they don’t have to do much to be better than the Orioles, as the teams current standings positions suggest that they are.