The Orioles have a chance today to complete a sweep of the Athletics in Sacramento, win six of their last eight games and finally move within one of .500 for the first time since April 30.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re only one game behind the Guardians, losers of two straight, for the last Wild Card.<\/p>\n
Blaze Alexander is leading off and playing second base. Jackson Holliday, Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers are on the bench.<\/p>\n
Basallo came out of last night\u2019s game after being hit on the right hand while blocking a pitch in the dirt. The Athletics are starting lefty Jeffrey Springs, which might have put Basallo in a reserve role anyway.<\/p>\n
Pete Alonso remains the designated hitter. Alonso is 0-for-13 with eight strikeouts in his last three games and 1-for-17 in his last four since going 4-for-4 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Coby Mayo remains the first baseman.<\/p>\n
Before the All-Star break, Mayo was hitting .125 and slugging .250 against high pitches. He\u2019s hitting .261 and slugging .609 against them in the second half, per STATS.<\/p>\n
Mayo has scored a run in four straight games, tied for the longest active streak in the majors. He\u2019s one shy of his career high.<\/p>\n
Colton Cowser is batting ninth and playing center field. Christian Franklin is in left.<\/p>\n
Chris Bassitt has allowed six runs in 17 2\/3 innings in three starts since his reinstatement from the injured list. He held the Cardinals to one run in 6 2\/3 in his last appearance.<\/p>\n
Bassitt faced the Athletics on May 10 and allowed one run in six innings. He\u2019s 4-1 with a 3.88 ERA in nine career games (seven starts) against the A\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Lawrence Butler is 4-for-9 with a double against Bassitt. Zack Gelof is 4-for-12 with a double and home run. Jonah Heim is 1-for-12 with a double.<\/p>\n
Bassitt has increased his strikeouts per nine innings from 5.91 before his IL stint to 7.13 since returning.<\/p>\n
The Orioles have gone a season-high eight straight games without committing an error, their longest streak since Aug. 18-26, 2023.<\/p>\n
Left-handers don\u2019t bother the Orioles anymore and they\u2019re seeing another one with bad numbers. Springs is 3-12 with a 6.08 ERA and 1.496 WHIP in 24 starts. The 30 home runs allowed are most in the American League.<\/p>\n
The Orioles should tee off unless the reverse lock takes hold.<\/p>\n
The splits are pretty much even this season. Right-handers are hitting .273\/.340\/.525 and left-handers are hitting .273\/.344\/.538.<\/p>\n
Springs, a former Tampa Bay Ray, has faced the Orioles 13 times (three starts) and gone 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA in 27 innings.<\/p>\n
Alonso is 1-for-2 with a home run.<\/p>\n
Henry Bolte is hitting .412 and slugging .608 when he\u2019s been ahead in the count this season.<\/p>\n
For the Orioles
Blaze Alexander 2B
Pete Alonso DH
Gunnar Henderson SS
Coby Mayo 1B
Christian Encarnacion-Strand 3B
Leody Taveras RF
Christian Franklin LF
Carlos Narv\u00e1ez C
Colton Cowser CF<\/p>\n
Chris Bassitt RHP<\/p>\n
For the Athletics
Henry Bolte CF
Jeff McNeil DH
Zack Gelof 3B
Lawrence Butler RF
Donovan Walton 2B
Tommy White 1B
Carlos Cortes LF
Brian Serven C
Alika Williams SS<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Springs LHP<\/p>\n
Triple-A Norfolk reliever Nick Raquet went on the seven-day injured list after leaving last night\u2019s game with left elbow discomfort.<\/p>\n
Outfielder Heston Kjerstad isn\u2019t in Norfolk\u2019s lineup in the final minor league game before major league rosters expand Tuesday. He went 3-for-4 Saturday and is batting .289 with a .799 OPS.<\/p>\n
Kjerstad is batting .311\/.400\/.527 in 21 games this month and .291\/.343\/.475 in 66 games over the last 90 days.<\/p>\n
The Orioles aren\u2019t listing their starters for the upcoming series in Colorado. The Rockies are starting right-handers Tanner Gordon (1-4, 5.38 ERA), Gabriel Hughes (0-6, 6.61) and Tomoyuki Sugano (12-8, 5.23).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles have a chance today to complete a sweep of the Athletics in Sacramento, win six of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[24869,115581,36473,93,36917,149629,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-448403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-chris-bassitt","tag-coby-mayo","tag-colton-cowser","tag-featured","tag-orioles","tag-roch-kubatko","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}