Baltimore Orioles pitching staff sets a franchise record
By Nick Stevens
Baltimore Orioles pitchers are currently riding a franchise-record streak of high-strikeout performances.
It’s now August 3rd and the Baltimore Orioles are currently sitting in second place in the American League East with a 5-3 record, coming off a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend.
Surely, that wasn’t a sentence you thought you would be reading about the Orioles this season. Their sweep over Tampa Bay was the first time the Orioles swept an opponent since 2018 and the first sweep of the Rays since 2016.
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It was a great weekend of baseball in Baltimore, led by a group of unsung heroes like Pat Valaika, who’s walk-off single in the 11th inning secured an extra-innings victory for the Birds on Saturday, and Tommy Milone, who allowed just one run across five innings, striking out eight and not walking a single batter.
Sunday’s performance was a record-setting contest for the Baltimore Orioles pitching staff, capping off a big weekend in Birdland. Orioles pitchers combined for 10+ strikeouts in a game for the fifth-straight game this season, breaking the franchise record of four games.
The streak started on July 29th in a contest against the New York Yankees, part of a two-game set that was originally supposed to be a four-game series against the Miami Marlins. Welcome to 2020.
Despite losing 9-3, Asher Wojciechowski fanned seven Yankee hitters across five innings, followed by five more strikeouts from the bullpen (Evan Phillips with two, Shawn Armstrong, Cody Carroll, Paul Fry each with one).
Game two in this streak was certainly a team effort after 2019 All-Star John Means struck out two over 2.1 innings, giving way to five relief arms who combined for eight more strikeouts to give the Orioles an even 10 on the day. Unfortunately, a ninth-inning home run off the bat of Aaron Judge dropped the Orioles to 2-3 on the season.
The Orioles quickly turned their misfortunes around, striking out 11 Tampa Bay hitters on Friday night as Alex Cobb took on his old team. It took 11 innings on Saturday night, but the streak continued with a Travis Lakins strikeout of Mike Zunino to lead off the top of the 11th.
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The record-breaking performance came on the back of Tommy Milone who fanned eight Rays hitters in five innings in a nice rebound start from his rough Opening Day outing against Boston.
Reliever Evan Phillips recorded the record-breaking strikeout, sitting down Willy Adames with a 93 mph fastball in the top of the 7th inning.
Despite putting together a patchwork starting rotation and missing a few key contributors out of the bullpen due to summer camp injuries, Baltimore Orioles pitchers currently rank seventh overall in baseball with 9.70 K/9 IP and in the top ten in strikeout percentage at 24.3%.
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The names may not be well known, but the Orioles are off to a quick start in 2020 and hope to continue their record-breaking pitching streak against the Miami Marlins this week. The two teams are scheduled to play four games in three days beginning Tuesday evening, but we will have to see what the expected weather has to say about that. And COVID-19. of course.