Monday, March 18, 2024

MLB Preview: Baltimore Orioles (22-10) at Atlanta Braves (22-11)

BALTIMORE ORIOLES NOTES:

A GRAND VICTORY: The Orioles defeated the Braves, 9-4, in last night’s series opener at Truist Park…The O’s plated seven runs in the seventh inning, their most in a single frame since scoring nine in the eighth inning on September 8, 2021 vs. Kansas City… Marked Baltimore’s first win against Atlanta since September 16, 2020 at Oriole Park, and their first in Atlanta since June 23, 2018.

Anthony Santander slugged a pair of homers, a solo shot off Max Fried in the fourth inning and his first career grand slam off Joe Jiménez in the seventh inning, to record a career-high five RBI and his 11th career multi-homer game (last: 9/27/22 at BOS); has homered in back-to-back games for the first time since September 26-27, 2022 at Boston; homered from both sides of the plate in the same game for the sixth time in his career and first since September 27, 2022 at Boston off Michael Wacha and Matt Strahm; per the Elias Sports Bureau, his six games with homers from both sides of the plate rank second in O’s history (since 1954), trailing Orioles Legend and Hall of Famer Eddie Murray with eight.

Cedric Mullins led off Baltimore’s seven-run seventh inning with a solo shot off Max Fried and is slashing .279/.392/.535 (12-for-43) with three doubles, one triple, two home runs, 13 RBI, and eight walks to six strikeouts against left-handed pitchers; his .927 OPS against southpaws ranks seventh among left-handed hitters in MLB.

Entering last night’s game, Fried had not allowed a home run since September 16, 2022 vs. Philadelphia (6 G), which was also the last time he had allowed multiple home runs in a game and the last time he surrendered a long ball to a lefty (Kyle Schwarber).

WHAT’S TRENDING: The O’s have won 14 of their last 17 games, 16 of their last 20, and 18 of their last 23…The .783 winning percentage (18-5) since April 10 is the best in the big leagues over that stretch…The 22-10 overall record is tied for the second-best start through the first 32 games of a season since the team moved to Baltimore, done in 1997 and 2017, and trailing the 23-9 mark in 1970 (see chart at right).

Baltimore owns the second-best record in MLB, trailing only Tampa Bay (27-6).

The O’s have won seven straight series, the longest streak since the team won eight series in a row from July 21 to August 13, 2014; the O’s record for most consecutive series wins is nine in a row from July 31 to August 27, 1968.

Last season, the Birds didn’t reach 22 wins until the 52nd game on June 1 (22- 30); they did not reach 23 wins until the 55th game on June 4 (23-32).

The Orioles are 70-47 since July 1, 2022, a 97-win pace; the .598 winning percentage during that time is the third-best in the AL and fifth-best in MLB, trailing the Dodgers (.692, 83-37), Braves (.669, 79-39), Astros (.630, 75-44), and Rays (.608, 73-47).

OPENING STATEMENTS: Baltimore is 11-0 in series openers to begin the 2023 campaign, the only team to have won all of their series openers this season…Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the streak of 11 consecutive series-opening victories to begin a season is the longest in Orioles history and tied for the third-longest streak by any MLB team with the 1883 and 1890 Philadelphia Athletics, 1959 Cleveland Indians, and 1973 San Francisco Giants, trailing a streak of 19 straight series-opening wins by the 1907 Chicago Cubs and a 12-game streak by the 1919 New York Giants…It is tied for the longest streak at any point in a season in O’s history, done three times prior: August 30 to September 30, 1974; May 23 to June 20, 1978; and May 16 to June 18, 1980.

AGAINST THE BRAVES: Baltimore and Atlanta meet for the only time this season with this weekend’s three-game set, the first matchups between the teams since 2021 and the second series ever between the clubs at Truist Park, formerly known as SunTrust Park…The Braves swept a three-game series at Camden Yards from August 20-22, 2021…The O’s took two of three games in Atlanta from June 22-24, 2018.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: The Orioles are currently on an 11-day, 10-game road trip, their longest of the season, which began last Thursday night in Detroit…The O’s are 6-2 on the trip against the Tigers (3-1), Royals (2-1), and Braves (1-0).

Baltimore’s 13-6 road start is tied with the 1970 and 1997 squads for the fourth-best start through 19 away games in O’s history, behind only the 14-5 starts in 1969, 2005, and 2012.

ON THE ATTACK: Baltimore ranks fourth in the AL and tied for fifth in MLB with 180 runs scored after finishing 10th in the AL and 20th in MLB with 674 runs in 2022…The Birds rank among AL teams in walks (1st, 130), on-base percentage (3rd,.342), slugging percentage (4th, .435), and OPS (4th, .777).

The Orioles rank second in the AL and seventh in MLB with 3.99 pitches per plate appearance; the O’s have five players in the top 25 in the AL in pitches per plate appearance: Adley Rutschman (5th, 4.26), Gunnar Henderson (9th, 4.21), Anthony Santander (13th, 4.17), Adam Frazier (22nd, 4.09), and Cedric Mullins (25th, 4.07).

KING OF THE CASTLE: Ryan Mountcastle has reached base safely in 14 straight games, the longest by an O’s batter this season and the second-longest on-base streak of his career behind a 17-gamer from July 28 to August 26, 2021…His last eight hits have gone for extra bases (6-2B, 2 HR) since April 30…Mountcastle has an extra-base hit in five straight games, the second-longest such stretch of his career behind a six-gamer from May 31 to June 6, 2021…Prior to this stretch, his previous 13 knocks were all singles from April 14-29 (G2).

The long balls on Tuesday snapped his 15-game homer drought since April 13.

His homer off Ryan Yarbrough in the fourth inning on Tuesday had an exit velocity of 112.2 mph, the hardest-hit home run by an O’s batter since he had a 113.1 mph homer on September 16, 2021 vs. New York-AL; since 2020, Mountcastle owns three of the four hardest-hit home runs and five of the seven hardest-hit home runs by an Oriole, per Statcast.

QUICK HITS: Adley Rutschman has reached base safely 61 times this year (35 H, 26 BB), which leads the AL and ranks second in MLB behind Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. (67)…Jorge Mateo now qualifies for the MLB leaderboard, where he ranks among AL leaders in slugging (8th, .568), batting average (9th, .307), and OPS (10th, .925).

STARTING PITCHER – #39 KYLE BRADISH RHP
QUICK HITS: Scheduled to make his fifth start of the season, fourth on the road, and first career start against the Braves tonight…Made 23 starts in his rookie season with the Orioles in 2022…Went 4-7 with a 4.90 ERA (64 ER/117.2 IP) with 111 strikeouts to 46 walks…Was one of 13 O’s players (7 pitchers) to make their debut in 2022…Started on the bump for Adley Rutschman’s debut on May 21 vs. Tampa Bay…Tossed 16.0 consecutive scoreless innings across four starts from August 26 to September 6…Acquired by the Orioles along with RHP Kyle Brnovich, RHP Zach Peek, and RHP Isaac Mattson from Los Angeles-AL in exchange for RHP Dylan Bundy on December 4, 2019…Originally drafted by the Angels in the fourth round of the 2018 First-Year Player Draft out of New Mexico State…Teammates at NMSU with INF Joey Ortiz.

LAST TIME OUT: Did not factor into the decision in his first career start against the Tigers on April 30…Allowed three runs on six hits (1 HR) with one walk, five strikeouts, and a hit batter in 4.2 innings at Comerica Park…Exited with runners on first and second…Threw 78 pitches, 48 strikes.

CAREER AGAINST BRAVES/NL EAST: Making his first career start against the Braves and second career start against the NL East… Earned the win in his only start against the division on April 19 at Washington, working 6.0 scoreless innings on five hits with one walk and six strikeouts…Threw 92 pitches, 59 strikes.

INTERLEAGUE HERO: Owns a 2-0 record with a 2.38 ERA (6 ER/22.2 IP) and 29 strikeouts to six walks in four career Interleague starts…Held opposing hitters to a .217 (18-for-83) batting average in those games… Earned his first career win and tallied a career-high 11 strikeouts on May 10, 2022 at St. Louis…Threw a career-high 105 pitches on June 7, 2022 vs. Chicago-NL…Has allowed two earned runs-or-fewer in each of his four career outings against the National League.

LIFE ON THE ROAD: Making his fourth road start of the season tonight… Owns a 1-0 record with a 2.19 ERA (3 ER/12.1 IP) in his first three starts away from Oriole Park this season; allowed all three earned runs in his most recent road start at Detroit on April 30…Sports a 4-2 record with a 4.30 ERA (32 ER/67.0 IP) and four quality starts in his first 14 career road outings.

SAVING HIS BEST FOR THE BEST: Made 14 starts against teams that qualified for the 2022 playoffs in his debut season, going 4-4 with a 4.24 (36 ER/76.1 IP) ERA…The Orioles owned a 9-5 record in those games…He went 2-0 against Houston, tossing 8.0 scoreless innings on August 26 at Minute Maid Park and throwing another 8.2 shutout frames on September 22 at Oriole Park.

ATLANTA BRAVES NOTES:

Wins in Strider Starts
RH Spencer Strider starts tonight for Atlanta, and the Braves are a perfect 6-0 in games he has started this season. Strider himself has compiled a 4-0 record and a 2.57 ERA over his six turns. He is one of four pitchers in baseball to make at least six starts this season and have his team win them all, joining NYY’s Gerrit Cole, TEX’s Jacob DeGrom and TB’s Shane McClanahan. Max Fried was the last Braves pitcher to have such a streak to open the season, as Atlanta won his first eight starts in 2020.

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Braves and Orioles tonight continue a three-game weekend series in what is the only scheduled meeting between the teams this season…The two last played in 2021, with Atlanta sweeping a three-game series in Baltimore.

• Baltimore beat Atlanta, 9-4, last night to win the opener.

• Atlanta and Baltimore have played 49 games since the advent of interleague play in 1997, with the Braves going 25-24 (.510) all-time against the Orioles.

• The two have played just one series here at Truist Park, a three-game set in 2018…Baltimore won two-of-three…Entering this series, just four teams had played fewer games here since the stadium opened in 2017, with Kansas City and Oakland playing twice each, and Cleveland and Minnesota yet to visit.

• RH Spencer Strider has never faced the Orioles, and has pitched against just one member of Baltimore’s active roster…James McCann is 0-for-2 with a strikeout…The 6-foot-0, 205-pound righthander has made six starts this season, going a perfect 4-0 with a 2.57 ERA (10 ER/35.0 IP).

• RH Kyle Bradish has also never faced Atlanta, nor has he ever pitched against a member of the Braves current roster…The 6-foot-4, 220-pound native of Peoria, AZ, has made four starts for Baltimore this season, going 1-1 with a 6.14 ERA (10 ER/14.2 IP) and allowing 28 baserunners.

LOSS: Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning last night but allowed nine unanswered runs to Baltimore, losing to the Orioles, 9-4…With the loss, Baltimore jumped Atlanta for the second-best record in baseball.

• LH Max Fried started for Atlanta and allowed seven runs, one off of his career high…He allowed eight on April 13, 2021 vs. Miami, 60 starts prior to last night.

• Fried also allowed a pair of home runs, the first homers he has surrendered all season, and committed two errors, the first career multi-error game for the three-time Gold Glove winner.

• Seven of Baltimore’s nine runs scored in the seventh inning, the most runs Atlanta has allowed in a single frame since yielding seven runs in the second inning of a 14-4 loss at Philadelphia on June 30, 2022.

INTERLEAGUE: The Braves are in their third interleague series of the season this weekend, and are 3-4 against the American League so far.

• Atlanta swept Kansas City, April 14-16, before getting swept by Houston, April 21-23.

• The Braves went 13-7 (.650) against the A.L. last season, tied for the third-best interleague record in the majors…Only the Brewers and Dodgers, both at 15-5 (.750), were better.

SEAN MURPHY: Went 2-for-4 with a homer and all four Atlanta RBI last night…The game was the fifth of his career with at least four RBI, three of which have come this season.

• He collected an RBI single in the first inning, before adding a three-run home run in the eighth.

• His 28 RBI are tied for the seventh-most by a Braves player in their first 30 games with the club… Austin Riley (2019) and Mark Teixeira (2007) hold the record with 32 RBI…Murphy is set to play his 30th game with Atlanta tonight.

• The home run was his ninth of the season, tying Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson for most on the club and sixth most in the majors…Atlanta is the only team in baseball to have three players with at least nine homers, while Tampa Bay is the only other club with at least two nine-homer players.

• Murphy’s ninth homer came in just his 29th game… He did not hit his ninth home run last season until game No. 70, and would go on to tally a career*most 18 for the year…He is on pace for 50 homers in 2023.

• His nine homers are tied for the most by a Braves catcher in history through 33 games, equaling the total set by Joe Torre (1965 & 1967) and later matched by Javy López (1998).

• Murphy leads all major league catchers in on-base percentage (.439), slugging percentage (.653), OPS (1.092), homers (9), runs (21), RBI (28), extra-base hits (17) and total bases (64) on the season.

RONALD ACUÑA JR.: Reached base two times last night, going 1-for-4 with a walk…Acuña Jr. has reached base in each of his last 24 games, the longest active streak in the National League.

• Just one player in baseball, Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, has a longer active on-base streak…Alvarez has reached in 30 straight games.

• For Acuña Jr., the run is his longest on-base streak since a 29 game run, spanning June 25, 2021 – May 22, 2022.

• Acuña Jr. is reaching base at a .444 clip for the season, the third-highest rate in baseball, while his .352 average ranks second.

HARD OUTS: Atlanta made five outs on balls put in play harder than 100.0 mph last night, four of which had expected batting averages of over .570…For the game, Atlanta’s expected batting average was .360, compared to a .260 mark for Baltimore.

• The Braves’ 102 hard-hit outs on the season, defined as outs on balls put in play with an exit velocity of at least 95.0, are most in the National League and tied for second most in the majors…Only Kansas City, with 115 such outs, has more.

• Atlanta is averaging 90.7 mph on its balls in play this season, the highest exit velocity for a team in baseball…Tampa Bay ranks second with a 90.2 mark.

Tonight’s Starting Pitcher – #99 Spencer Strider RHP
2023 Record: 4-0, 2.57 ERA • 2022 Record: 11-5, 2.67 ERA
vs. RHB: .159 (10-63), 1 HR • vs. LHB: .150 (9-for-60), 1 HR
Home: 1-0, 3.00 ERA (6 ER/18.0) • Away: 3-0, 2.12 ERA (4/17.0)

Today’s Game
• Strider is set to make his seventh start this year and first of his career vs. Baltimore.

• Earned his fourth win of the season in his last start against New York (NL).

• Struck out eight hitters and extended his streak of eight or more strikeouts to 10 games.

• It is the longest active streak in baseball.

• Snapped his streak of nine consecutive games with at least nine strikeouts that begun on September 1, 2022.

• It is tied for third-longest such streak in the modern era (since 1900).

• Passed Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz for the longest streak in franchise history.

• Leads all qualified starters with a rate of 14.66 strikeouts per nine innings this season.

• Dating to 1901, his 14.66 K/9 rate is the fifth highest through six starts to open a season.

• Only Tyler Glasnow (’20) Kerry Wood (’98), Corbin Burnes (’21), and Gerrit Cole (’21) had higher rates through their first six starts in a season dating to 1901.

• Strider’s 59.0% rate of pitches in the zone is the highest among qualifiers.

• His swing and miss rate of 38.3% is the second highest in the majors, trailing only Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan’s 39.1%.

2023 Recap
• Carried a perfect game into the seventh inning in his last start against Miami until he lost his bid on a Matt Olson error.

• Maintained a no-hitter through 7.1 innings; broken up on a single by Jean Segura.

• Struckout a season-high 13 hitters and finished with two hits allowed over 8.0 innings pitched.

• Started the second game of the season for Atlanta and earned the win, fanning nine hitters while pitching 6.0 scoreless innings against Washington.

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