The Orioles have been held to four hits or fewer 22 times this season, tied with the Pirates for second most in the majors behind the Rangers\u2019 25. They\u2019ve scored five runs or fewer in 12 straight games since Aug. 1. But they won the last two against the Mariners, including their first walk-off, to complete the homestand.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re back on the road tonight to begin a three-game series in Houston, with no roster moves announced.<\/p>\n
Coby Mayo stays at first base. Daniel Johnson is the center fielder and Jeremiah Jackson is in right.<\/p>\n
Gunnar Henderson has an extra-base hit in a career-best five consecutive games. He\u2019s batting .310\/.384\/.500 (70-for-226) with 18 doubles, two triples, seven home runs, 36 RBIs and 37 runs scored in 64 games since June 1.<\/p>\n
Henderson leads the majors with a .511 average (23-for-45) with runners in scoring position since June 1.<\/p>\n
Adley Rutschman has a career .985 OPS against the Astros.<\/p>\n
Rookie Brandon Young is making his 11th start after going 0-6 with a 6.70 ERA and 1.737 WHIP in 44 1\/3 innings. He allowed six runs in three innings against the Athletics in his last outing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just disappointing letting the team down,” Young said afterward. “Almost every time I go out. It\u2019s just really frustrating. Pretty disappointed. I\u2019ve just got to be better. That\u2019s on me. I\u2019m not sure, specifically, the challenges I was facing. It was just get in bad counts, leaving balls over the middle and they were making me pay for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m gonna try to forget it as quick as possible, really. I feel like I\u2019ve been dwelling on the past few, but now this one, it\u2019s like, you know, I\u2019ve just got to get out of my head. Onto the next one, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young will be pitching in his home state tonight.<\/p>\n
The Orioles rotation has a 2.55 ERA in the last seven games, lowest in the majors. The five quality starts and two homers allowed are tied for first, per STATS.<\/p>\n
The staff\u2019s ERA has dropped from 4.79 in July to 3.81 in August.<\/p>\n
The Orioles have lost their last four road series, and they\u2019ve won only three this season, tied with the Rockies and Pirates for fewest in the majors, according to STATS.<\/p>\n
Astros left-hander Framber Valdez is 11-5 with a 2.97 ERA and 1.160 WHIP in 23 starts and he\u2019s registered two complete games. He\u2019s surrendered only eight home runs in 145 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
Valdez allowed two earned runs over 19 innings in his last three starts in July, but he\u2019s given up nine earned and 10 total this month in 11 2\/3.<\/p>\n
Valdez is 5-1 with a 1.65 ERA and 1.056 WHIP in 11 home starts and 6-4 with a 4.22 ERA and 1.259 WHIP in 12 road starts. He owns a 4.19 ERA and 1.340 WHIP in six career games against the Orioles.<\/p>\n
Rutschman is 6-for-13 with a double and home run against Valdez. Ryan Mountcastle is 5-for-12 with a homer. Jordan Westburg is 3-for-6 with a double and homer.<\/p>\n
Valdez utilizes his sinker 44.4 percent of the time and opponents are hitting .279, the highest mark against any of his pitches. Since June 7, Orioles hitters have posted a .305 average against sinkers, fifth highest in the majors.<\/p>\n
Orioles hitters with the most success against sinkers during that stretch include:<\/p>\n
Coby Mayo (.412, 7-for-17)
Adley Rutschman (.400, 4-for-10)
Jordan Westburg (.360, 9-for-25)
Jackson Holliday (.325, 13-for-40) \u00a0<\/p>\n
Yainer Diaz has a 10-game hitting streak against the Orioles.<\/p>\n
Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas will face his former team for the first time since the trade deadline. He\u2019s playing second base.<\/p>\n
The Astros are 68-53, winners of six of their last nine games, and in first place in the American League West by 1 \u00bd over the Mariners. They\u2019re 37-25 at home.<\/p>\n
They swept the Orioles in a three-game series in Houston last summer, winning 14-11, 5-1 and 8-1.<\/p>\n
The Astros\u2019 .258 average is third-highest in the majors. The pitching staff\u2019s 1,147 strikeouts are first and the 3.76 ERA is ninth. The bullpen\u2019s 3.54 ERA is fifth.<\/p>\n
The staff recorded a 3.48 ERA through July 6, but the Astros have a 4.58 ERA since the 7th.<\/p>\n
Injured closer Josh Hader was diagnosed with a capsule sprain in his left shoulder.<\/p>\n
For the Orioles<\/p>\n
Jackson Holliday 2B
Jordan Westburg 3B
Gunnar Henderson SS
Adley Rutschman C
Ryan Mountcastle DH
Coby Mayo 1B
Jeremiah Jackson RF
Dylan Carlson LF
Daniel Johnson CF<\/p>\n
Brandon Young RHP<\/p>\n
Tyler Wells starts tonight for Triple-A Norfolk in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
For the Astros<\/p>\n
Jose Altuve DH
Carlos Correa 3B
Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez LF
Christian Walker 1B
Yainer Diaz C
Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas 2B
Taylor Trammel CF
Mauricio Dub\u00f3n SS
Cam Smith RF<\/p>\n
Framber Valdez LHP<\/p>\n
Brendan Mortensen is in Houston. I\u2019ll join the team in Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles have been held to four hits or fewer 22 times this season, tied with the Pirates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[1079,143,47,2538,5,796,916,54,1360,4,125,579,914,578],"class_list":{"0":"post-250720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-adley-rutschman","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-brandon-young","14":"tag-gunnar-henderson","15":"tag-houston-astros","16":"tag-lineups","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-orioles","19":"tag-orioles-featured","20":"tag-ramon-urias","21":"tag-roch-kubatko"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115035498833620910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}