Orioles Sweep Astros
The Baltimore Orioles swept the Houston Astros giving them a season-high seven game winning streak much to the chagrin of the home crowd at Daikin Park.
The last time they had consecutive sweeps was May 30-June 5, 2025, when they won six straight games.
With an improved record of (49-51) the Birds put themselves back in the playoff picture now eight games back in the division and two games back in the Wild Card race.
Baltimore won the first game of the series 3-2 and the middle game 4-2.
The star of the series finale, a 5-2 victory was starter Brandon Young. He struck out seven allowed five hits walking one and surrendering one run in seven innings of work.
The 6-feet-6 righthander improved to a team-best (8-2) with a sweet 3.25 E.R.A. He threw 95 pitches, 62 for strikes.
Reliever Rico Garcia surrendered one run in the eighth and Grant Wolfram earned his first save of the year.
At the plate Coby Mayo went 2-4 clobbering his 13th homerun of the season. Gunnar Henderson had an RBI single and stole home on a double steal. Leody Taveras added a two-run single for Baltimore.
The first game Orioles hero was Taylor Ward as his 399-feet two-run homer to left center in the eighth launched the Birds to victory.
Starter Dean Kremer had a short outing striking out five and allowing four hits and three walks while surrendering two runs in four innings of work.
Five relievers shutout the Astros and Tyler Wells earned his third save of the season.
The middle game was really exciting for Baltimore fans as the Orioles won amazingly in extra innings.
Houston appeared ready to win the game with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, but the Birds had other ideas.
With the score now 2-2, they set up their defense with five infielders and two outfielders. The unusual defense paid off as a shallow fly ball was snared by outfielder Tyler O’Neill who reared back and launched a massive throw home to the right side of the plate.
It was caught by 6-feet-4 catcher Samuel Basallo who all-in-one motion swipe tagged the baserunner barreling down the line from third out for an incredible double play.
The Orioles recorded the last out of the inning and were very fortunate to still have a chance to win the game keeping the score even at 2-2.
O’Neill was also the hero in the 11th inning as his hustle down the line allowed him to beat out the two-out throw to first enabling Henderson to score.
A Taveras single to right made the winning score 4-2.
Starter Trevor Rogers struck out eight while allowing seven hits, one run and one walk in 6.1 innings of work.
He threw 99 pitches, 72 for strikes and lowered his E.R.A. to 4.28.
Five relievers allowed one Houston run and recently acquired pitcher Cam Sanders earned his first save with the team.
