It’s up to Zach Eflin to be the stopper and get the Orioles back to winning ways.
It’s not much fun to be an Orioles fan at the moment. The team is losing. Like, a lot. They’ve dropped five straight and are 3-11 for the month of May. That cost Brandon Hyde his job as manager on Saturday. The first game of the Tony Mansolino era didn’t go great, a 10-6 loss to the Nationals. Hopefully Game 2 works out better.
The Orioles will definitely have the advantage in the starting pitching matchup. Zach Eflin, their best pitcher, will begin the day on the bump. Eflin returned from a month-long IL stint last Sunday to deliver five solid innings against the Angels. That was the last time the Orioles won a game.
Mansolino is trotting out the “Fingers Crossed They Start to Click All at Once” lineup. Ryan Mountcastle is quietly on an 11-game hitting streak in which he is hitting .304. But he doesn’t have any home runs in that span. The O’s keep putting him second in the order, hoping that he knocks in Jackson Holliday, who has a .368 batting average over his last four games. Maybe it all works out.
Orioles lineup
- Jackson Holliday, 2B
- Ryan Mountcastle, DH
- Gunnar Henderson, SS
- Adley Rutschman, C
- Ryan O’Hearn, 1B
- Ramón Laureano, LF
- Cedric Mullins, CF
- Heston Kjerstad, RF
- Emmanuel Rivera, 3B
RHP Zach Eflin (3-1, 3.13 ERA)
Nationals lineup
- C.J. Abrams, SS
- James Wood, LF
- Nate Lowe, 1B
- Keibert Ruiz, C
- Luis Garcìa, 2B
- Josh Bell, DH
- Alex Call, RF
- José Tena, 3B
- Dylan Crews, CF
RHP Mike Soroka (0-2, 6.43 ERA)