masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe Orioles tonight begin their third and last stretch of 20 games that will complete the shortened 2020 regular season. They also begin their next-to-last road trip of the year. They play the New York Mets the next two nights at Citi Field, then move to Yankee Stadium for four games starting Thursday.
The Orioles (19-21) and Mets (19-23) split two games last week in Baltimore. The Orioles won the series opener 9-5 and lost the next night 9-4. The Orioles have won three in a row and five of…

The Orioles tonight begin their third and last stretch of 20 games that will complete the shortened 2020 regular season. They also begin their next-to-last road trip of the year. They play the New York Mets the next two nights at Citi Field, then move to Yankee Stadium for four games starting Thursday.

The Orioles (19-21) and Mets (19-23) split two games last week in Baltimore. The Orioles won the series opener 9-5 and lost the next night 9-4. The Orioles have won three in a row and five of seven. The Mets have lost seven of 11 games. Both teams still have playoff hopes. The Orioles are 1 1/2 games behind the No. 8 seed Yankees in the American League. The Mets are three games out of a playoff spot in the National League.

Means-Pitching-Back-at-TB-Gray-Sidebar.jpgLeft-hander John Means (0-3, 8.10 ERA) will make his seventh start. It has certainly not been a season like what he hoped or expected and the Orioles are 0-6 in Means’ 2020 outings. Means took the loss to the Mets on Wednesday when he gave up four runs in 5 1/3 innings. But it was a step forward in that he produced season highs in innings and pitches with 81.

The home run ball has been getting Means in recent outings. He gave up two against the Mets and has yielded six over his last three games in 12 1/3 innings. For the year, he is allowing 3.6 per every nine innings. Last year, when he finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, he allowed 1.3 home runs per nine innings.

This season, lefty batters are hitting .273 with an OPS of .804 off Means. Last year, lefties posted .184/.556 numbers. This season, right-handers are batting .300 with a .998 OPS off Means. Last year, righties posted .249/.746 numbers.

His mound opponent tonight was his mound opponent Wednesday, right-hander Michael Wacha (1-2, 7.20 ERA). He is making his sixth start and the Mets are 3-2 in his outings. In 20 innings on the season, Wacha has a WHIP of 1.750, allows 1.8 homers per nine innings with a walk rate of 3.2 and a 12.2 strikeout rate.

In that game at Camden Yards, Wacha went only three innings and gave up two runs. In his first start of this year, Wacha allowed one earned run over five innings. But in the four starts since, he is 0-2 with an ERA of 9.00. Opponents have hit .338 against him in that span with an OPS of 1.026.

Even though he is a righty pitcher, right-handed batters have been cleaning up against him in 2020. They are batting .386 with an OPS of 1.198. Right-handed hitters have produced six doubles, a triple and three homers in 47 plate appearances. Lefty batters hit .256/.719 against him. The O’s have six right-handed batters a switch-hitter in their lineup tonight.

The Mets, who average 4.86 runs per game, are batting .276 as a team to lead Major League Baseball. Their team OBP of .353 also is tops in the majors. They rank fifth in slugging at .459 and third in OPS at .812. New York ranks eighth in the NL in team ERA at 4.61.

The O’s, who average 4.80 runs per game, are batting .261 as a team to rank tied for seventh in the majors. They show a team OBP of .326, tied for 15th, with a .441 slugging, 10th in the majors. The club OPS of .767 is fourth in the AL and 11th in the majors. The O’s team ERA of 4.38 is seventh in the AL.

Hanser Alberto is 14-for-40 (.350) during a 10-game hitting streak with 14 singles. José Iglesias is batting .396 (21-for-53) during a 12-game hitting streak. Rio Ruiz is 9-for-26 (.346) during his eight-game hitting streak. DJ Stewart is 4-for-7 in his last two games with three homers. The Orioles have scored 35 runs over the last six games.

The Orioles are 16-5 when they have more hits than their opponent and 1-13 when they get outhit. They are 0-12 when scoring three runs or less, but 19-9 when scoring four runs or more.