Baltimore Orioles: Matt Harvey’s Historic Scoreless Streak

As July comes to a close, Orioles starter Matt Harvey is just heating up, tossing his third consecutive scoreless start on Friday night

Following Friday’s MLB trade deadline, the Baltimore Orioles opened a three-game road series at Comerica Park against the Detriot Tigers. Taking the mound for the O’s was veteran right-hander Matt Harvey, who was coming off a pair of scoreless starts of six innings each against the Kansas City Royals and the Washington Nationals. And, much like he did in Kansas City and D.C., Harvey dominated, making it into the seventh inning before handing the pitching duties over to the bullpen for the remainder of the game.

Harvey’s final line credited him with six and one-third innings of work, allowing six hits and striking out five Tigers batters. The outing extended Harvey’s scoreless innings streak to 18.1 innings, adding him to a list of just seven pitchers in franchise history with three consecutive scoreless starts of six innings or more. According to MASN’s Roch Kubatko, no Orioles starter has more than three such starts.

Contributing to Harvey’s recent success on the mound has been his ability to control the strike zone and limit home runs, something he’s struggled with for the better part of the season. In the 18 starts prior to this streak, Harvey had just one start without a walk, including six starts with multiple free passes. As for the long ball, Harvey allowed home runs at a 1.4 HR/9 rate in his previous 18 starts, which he has significantly improved on in these last three starts, knocking the rate down to just 0.5 HR/9.

Looking forward, Harvey will be tested in his next outing, going up against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, according to projected starts provided by RosterResource.

Harvey’s season-long ERA improved to 6.20 following Friday’s start in Detriot.