The Baltimore Orioles took three of four from their cross town rival the Washington Nationals, winning the Battle of the Beltways but more importantly keeping pace with their A.L. East opponents in the race for first and a playoff berth.
With 35 games left in the regular season Toronto and Boston are tied for first in the division with a record of (71-56). The O’s are one game back at (70-57) and would qualify for the Wild Card playoff game if it happened today.
After coming off of a 3-5 homestand which included taking two straight from the Nationals the Birds travelled up the beltway to take on Washington at Nationals Park in a split home and away series.
Baltimore won the first three but ran into a buzz saw in Washington’s Max Scherzer who pitched a 4-0 shut out victory for the Nats. He recorded 10 strikeouts while surrendering two hits in eight innings of work.
Meanwhile, Oriole’s replacement starter, Ubaldo Jimenez, who was filling in for the injured Chris Tillman who is on the disabled list with a sore right arm, pitched one of his best games of the season. Jimenez, who was a starter but pitched his way out of the rotation, allowed five hits, struck out four and gave up one run in six innings of work.
The game was still only 1-0 in the eighth, but Washington rallied for three late runs to avoid the sweep.
In the first game of the series, a 4-3 Baltimore win, the team that leads the Majors in homers got two more. Mark Trumbo had a two-run blast, slugging his MLB-leading 38th home run of the season. Jonathan Schoop added his 20th long ball of the season to the winning effort.
On the hill, Oriole’s starter Dylan Bundy struck out four allowed four walks while surrendering three hits and two runs in six innings of work. He improved to (7-4) and now has a 3.33 ERA.
The bullpen allowed one run and closer Zach Britton earned his AL-best 38th straight save of the season.
In the second game of the series, the O’s won 8-1. Catcher Matt Wieters went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and slugger Chris Davis launched his 30th homer of the season. Center fielder Adam Jones was four for five with one RBI.
Meanwhile, starter Kevin Gausman, who loves pitching at Camden Yards, allowed six hits struck out two and walked two in six innings of work. He improved to (5-10) and now has a 3.92 ERA.
After getting two good outings from their younger members of the staff, the Orioles got another shot in the arm when newly acquired starter Wade Miley pitched his best game as a Bird, a 10-8 win.
He allowed seven hits struck out six while giving up two runs and walking one in five innings of work. He improved to (8-10) and now has a 5.51 ERA.
Third baseman Manny Machado and Wieters combined for eight RBIs. Machado hit his 29th homer with one aboard in the first inning as the Bird’s jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. Wieters hit a three-run bomb in the eighth to give his team a 10-3 lead heading into the ninth inning.
The Nationals rallied for five in their bottom half to make the game interesting but Britton came in to end the threat and secure the win for the Orioles.
The Orioles will now take the train up to New York to take on another A. L. East opponent, the Yankees, who are staging a rally of their own for a Wild Card and playoff berth and are now only 5.5 games out of first with a record of (65-61).
