2 keys to the Orioles series win over the Yankees that they must build on going forward

After the New York Yankees dominated the Baltimore Orioles in their first series at the beginning of the month, nobody was excited to see them back on the schedule a week later, but this time around the Orioles fought back and managed to take a series from the Yankees and start to climb their way back into the playoff picture.

For the Orioles to go from helpless to hopeful, something had to change, and two parts of the team in particular that had been struggling all season showed up against the Yankees and made the difference between winning and losing the series.

The Orioles need the bottom of their order to stay hot

The bottom of the Orioles' lineup has been an anchor this season. The quartet of Taylor Ward, Adley Rutschman, Pete Alonso, and Samuel Basallo have been responsible for the majority of the Orioles' offensive output this season. Those four, if they're all in the lineup, usually hit 2-5 in the lineup, so if the Orioles want to score, that's the window in the lineup to do so. The 6-9 in the order has been a real deadzone outside of a Jeremiah Jackson hot streak, which now feels like a distant memory.

Here are the slashlines of some of the players who have been mainstays in that part of the order coming into the series against the Yankees:

Tyler O'Neill: .185/.313/.241
Coby Mayo: .158/.218/.277
Blaze Alexander: .229/.289/.277
Jeremiah Jackson: .246/.267/.413

As you can see from the on-base percentages of this group, it's been a lot of easy outs at the bottom of the order. In this series against the Yankees, the bottom of the order showed up for the Orioles.

O'Neill's OBP for the series was .363, including a key walk in the 7th inning against the Yankees that led to Mayo's three-run homer that was the difference in the game.

Speaking of Mayo, he went 3/8 with 2 walks, a homer, and a double. It was by far the best he's looked in a long time.

Alexander went 3/4 in the series finale, scoring multiple runs and driving in a pair to boot. That kind of production from the 9-hole is a big boost to the offense.

The Orioles don't need the bottom of their order to be the catalyst of every victory, but if the 6-9 spots in the order can just avoid being automatic outs and pop the occasional homer over the fence, that would give them a lot more breathing room and would only make the top of the order that much more dangerous.

The Orioles need more outings like what they got from Bradish and Young in this series

All season, the Baltimore Orioles' rotation has put their offense behind early in games. Trevor Rogers made three very strong starts to start the year, and since then, it's been basically impossible for the Orioles to win unless their offense scored five or more runs. They were also the only team to not pitch a shutout in the big leagues this year, coming into the series.

With the exception of Rogers, the Orioles starters showed up big time against the Yankees. Brandon Young went 5.1 innings of 2 run ball, which at the time was the best start the Orioles had gotten against the Yankees all year by a lot. Bradish finished off the series with six shutout innings, and the bullpen didn't budge after that, leading the Orioles to their first shutout win of the year.

Similar to the bottom of the order, the Orioles don't need their starting pitchers to go six shutout innings every outing, but avoiding early blow-up innings that put the offense into scramble mode is a must.

If the Orioles’ starters leave the game after five innings, having held the opposition to two or fewer runs, the Orioles are going to win a lot of those games. It hasn't happened much so far this year, but if they can build on these two successful outings from Young and Bradish, they'll be back in the playoff hunt before they know it.

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