The Orioles went home after a nine-game road trip. Before the huge series against Tampa Bay, the Cardinals came to town for a three-game series. The last newest opponent in 2023. Overall, some achievements and the same old problems.
Orioles lose three game series against Cardinals at home
Wins against everybody: STL 5-11 BAL
A back-and-forth game until the bottom 5th. Down 5-4, the Cardinals brought in a righty reliever to face Cedric Mullins, and the outfielder hit his third career grand slam. Gunnar Henderson added another HR, his 25th, and he joined with some great Orioles legends in their rookie seasons. The sweepless streak is now 86. And the Orioles is the first team no MLB history to beat every team at least once in a single season. For bad, Dean Kremer doesn't threw five innings for the second straight time (4.1 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K).
Welcome back, Means: STL 5-2 BAL
John Means returned and you can check here his performance with more details. In general, this game brought another 'Random Orioles Killer' aboard: Richie Palacios. The utilityman entered to replace Nolan Gorman and hit two of three Cardinals dingers in that game. The offense couldn't beat themselves with a 1-12 RISP performance against the veteran Adam Wainwright, who snapped his losing streak for his 199th career win. The silver lining: the Twins beat the Rays.
The soft lefty toss: STL 1-0 BAL
Logan T. Allen. Ty Blach. Drew Rom. All soft toss lefty pitchers. All of them played pretty well against Baltimore at Camden Yards. Especially Rom, one of the three prospects traded for Jack Flaherty and shined for his first MLB win against his former organization. He carried a no-hitter until fifth inning in a pitcher's duel with Kyle Gibson (6.2 IP, 3 H, ER, 3 B, 4 K). Richie Palacios, again, hit a Home Run for the lone run of the game. The Orioles were 0-6 RISP and lost a series after seven straight series wins.
To make things a bit worse, Tampa Bay beat Minnesota, Texas beat Toronto and Seattle beat LA Angels. The division lead fall to 2.0 games and the magic number for a playoff clinch still 4.