CINCINNATI – The great recent pitching run of O’s lefty Cole Irvin hit the road tonight at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. He baffled the Reds as he had the Royals and Athletics in his two previous starts.
He entered the game with a scoreless streak of 14 1/3 innings and had thrown 13 2/3 scoreless on eight hits in his most recent outings against Kansas City and Oakland.
He was 2-0 with an ERA of 0.98 his last three starts, with the Orioles 3-0 in those games.
A great pitcher’s duel between Irvin and Cincinnati right-hander Hunter Greene was finally broken up in the Baltimore seventh. Adley Rutschman produced an RBI double for the lead and Ryan O’Hearn's home run added to that as the Orioles beat Cincinnati 3-0 in front of 25,861 in the road trip opener.
In a game that started two hours and 41 minutes late due to rain, they won the series opener to stay a game ahead of the Yankees, who also won. The Birds are now 21-11 with wins in four of the last five and nine of their past 13 games.