O's game blog: O's look for series win in finale against Seattle

The Orioles have fared quite well in rubber match games this season and hope that trend continues when they wrap up a series with the Mariners at Camden Yards. The Mariners won 10-0 Tuesday night and the Orioles hit four homers and won 9-2 last night. So the winner tonight takes the series.

The Orioles are 6-2 this year in rubber match games:

* April 13, lost 4-2 to Milwaukee.

* April 17, beat New York Yankees 5-0.

* May 1, beat Boston 2-1 (10).

* May 9, beat Kansas City 6-1.

* May 12, won 3-2 at St. Louis.

* May 22, beat Tampa Bay 7-6 (11).

* May 25, lost 2-0 to New York Yankees.

* May 30, won 10-0 at Boston.

So they have won six of those eight games by a combined 35-16 score in series-deciding games. The Orioles are 7-7-1 in series play this year and six of the seven series victories came via a rubber match game win.

The Orioles' four homers last night was their second-most of the year, behind their five-homer game on May 5 against the Twins. Rougned Odor hit a three-run homer in the second inning to start their scoring and the O's hit three homers in the last of the sixth as Ryan Mountcastle and Ramón Urías hit back-to-back solo shots and Trey Mancini added a two-run homer.

The Orioles have hit 22 homers at home this year in 25 games with a team OPS of .677. The Orioles on the road have hit 25 home runs in 27 games with a team OPS of .656.

Odor hit his fifth home run of the year and has reached base safely in 13 of his last 16 games, batting .276/.300/.586 (16-for-58) with four doubles, one triple, four home runs, 16 RBIs, and nine runs scored since May 16.

Left fielder Austin Hays had an RBI double and walked twice in the win last night, extended his hitting streak to 12 games. That is the longest by an Orioles batter in 2022 and the second-longest active streak in the American League. Hays is batting .333/.412/.489 (15-for-45) with a double, two homers, 10 RBIs, and nine runs scored during the streak.

Mancini bashed a double high off the left-field wall in the fifth with an estimated distance of 411 feet. Then, he hit a ball farther to the right side of the field that went 397 into the O’s bullpen an inning later. Mancini has hit safely in 20 of his last 25 games since May 8 and is batting .358/.445/.505 (34-for-95) since then. He recorded his team-leading 18th multi-hit game and entered that game ranked fourth in the AL and tied for seventh in the MLB in multi-hit games.

Mountcastle’s homer was a blast to left that traveled 426 feet. That was his longest homer of the season and sixth-longest overall at Oriole Park this season. Urías tagged his fifth homer and has a hit in 10 of his last 12 games dating back to May 20, slashing .319/.360/.596 (15-for-47) with four doubles and three home runs in that span.

Winning pitcher Cionel Peréz (4-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless with one strikeout. He has allowed just one run in 16 1/3 (0.55 ERA) and entered the day as one of eight MLB pitchers and one of four AL pitchers to allow one run-or-fewer this season (min. 15.0 IP).

The Orioles (22-30) are now 4-3 in their past seven games, 8-6 in their last 14 and 16-16 in their previous 32. They improved to 13-12 at home and have now scored 77 runs in the last 14 games, for 5.5 per game.

Seattle (21-29) has lost eight of its past 12 games and is 10-23 since April 26.

Right-hander Jordan Lyles (3-4, 4.26 ERA) is on the mound tonight in the series finale. On Saturday at Boston, Lyles gave up three runs over 4 1/3 in the opener of a doubleheader. In his last three games, he has thrown 106, 117 and 93 pitches. The Orioles are 4-6 in his starts. He has a career ERA of 5.87 in 11 games and nine starts versus the Mariners.

Seattle’s starter is right-hander Chris Flexen (2-6, 4.47 ERA), who will make his 10^th start. For the year, Flexen has thrown 50 1/3 innings, allowing 54 hits with a 1.411 WHIP, 3.0 walk rate and 6.6 strikeout rate. He is coming off a very strong start, allowing one run over seven innings Friday versus Houston. But his ERA was 8.79 in the three starts before that and Seattle is just 2-7 in his outings in 2022.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Orioles have had the third-toughest strength of schedule in the major leagues across their first 52 games. Baltimore's opponents have a combined .543 winning percentage and only the Phillies (.553) and Nationals (.545) have faced opponents with a better combined percentage. Entering play today, Baltimore’s opponents for the remaining 110 games have a combined .513 winning percentage, the sixth-highest in MLB.

The Orioles have played 32 games against teams with a winning record, the most in MLB and four games more than the next closest team, which is the Phillies at 28. Baltimore has gone 13-19 in those games. Baltimore's 20 games versus teams with a losing record is the fewest in MLB.