The Orioles Fly Past Cincinnati in Series Opener (7/29/22)

The Orioles took down the Reds in a tightly contested game.

The Orioles started their six-game away stretch against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, July, 29th.

After a successful Mo Gaba Day, the O’s are the comeback kids once again.

Orioles starting lineup:

C. Mullins CF, 2. A. Rutschman C, 3. T. Mancini DH, 4. A. Santander RF, 5. R. Mountcastle 1B, 6. A. Hays LF, 7. R. Urias 3B, 8. R. Odor 2B, 9. J. Mateo SS

The starting pitcher for the O’s was Kyle Bradish (1-4, 7.38 ERA, 46K). This was Bradish’s first start since June 10th after returning from the Injured List.

Reds starting lineup:

J. India 2B, 2. B. Drudy 3B, 3. T. Pham LF, 4. J. Votto 1B, 5. K. Farmer SS, 6. M. Moustakas DH, 7. M. Reynolds RF, 8. N. Senzel CF, 9. M. Papierski C

The pitcher for the Reds was Mike Minor (1-7, 6.65 ERA, 41K).

In his first inning back, Bradish was able to get two strikeouts before letting up a Joey Votto 373-foot homerun to give the Reds a 2-0 lead.

Anthony Santander had the first hit for the Orioles and extended his hitting streak to nine days.

Rougned Odor came up in the second with runners on first and third but left them stranded after flying out to right field.

Bradish redeemed himself after the early homer, striking out two of the three batters in the second and third innings.

After a couple quiet frames, Anthony Santander hit a 375-foot home run (18) at the top of the sixth to tie the ball game 2-2.

Joel Kuhnel (6.07 ERA) replaced Mike Minor who had 4 strikeouts and a shutout going before the two-run dinger.

After 5 innings and 7 strikeouts, Bradish was relieved by Joey Krehbiel (2.45 ERA).

Cionel Perez (1.30 ERA) relieved Krehbiel in the 6th and stranded the bases with runners on after striking out Donovan Solano.

The Reds pitcher, Kuhnel was relieved by Reiner Sanmartin (7.56 ERA) in the 7th.

Dillon Tate (2.28 ERA) came in for Perez after he issued a walk in the 7th.

The Reds tested Adley Rutschman’s arm on a wild pitch and got thrown out at third to get the O’s out of the 7th.  The call on the field was safe and then overturned by replay.

The Reds’ Ian Gibaut (5.59 ERA) relieves Sanmartin to start the 8th.

The Orioles had the chance to take the lead with runners on first and second with zero outs but ended up leaving them stranded to end the half of the 8th inning.

Buck Farmer (4.50 ERA) came in the 9th to try to keep the Orioles scoreless.

Odor had other plans as he doubled with no outs and put Ryan McKenna, who pinch ran for Ramon Urias, on third. Cedric Mullins then hit a 2 RBI single up the middle and gave the Orioles a 4-2 lead.

Trey Mancini hit home Mullins to add onto the Orioles lead, now making it 5-2, when a grounder hit the second base bag and ricocheting into the outfield.

Terrin Vavra made his MLB debut as a pinch runner. Vavra was batting .324 this year with the O’s Triple-A affiliate, the Norfolk Tides.

Dauri Moreta (6.37 ERA) came in for the Reds to try to stop the wound from bleeding further.

After Moreta hit Santander with a pitch, the benches cleared in Cincinnati, but no fist fight ensued.

Ryan Mountcastle hit a sac-fly for the Orioles to score another run moving the lead to 6-2.

Jorge Lopez (1.71) came in for the Orioles and closed out the game, even though it was no longer a save situation.

That places the O’s two games over .500. They will take on the Reds again tomorrow, Saturday July 30th at 6:40 PM EST.