Connect with us

Published

on

BALTIMORE — Adley Rutschman has still never been swept in the regular season as a big leaguer.

With that streak on the verge of ending, the Baltimore catcher took matters into his own hands Wednesday, hitting a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2. The Orioles have now gone 105 consecutive regular-season series of at least two decisions (no ties) without being swept. Only two teams have had longer runs.

“Our guys are really resilient, they have been all year,” Rutschman said. “Always the next guy up. We never think we’re out of it.”

Baltimore’s streak lost some of its luster when the Orioles were in fact swept in last year’s AL Division Series by Texas, but the regular-season run is still fascinating. Of the 105 series, 76 have been three games, 19 have been four, nine have been two, and there was one five-gamer. Baltimore’s overall record during the span is 197-132.

Even for a team with a winning percentage of .599, the chances of going through all those series without being swept are around 0.08%.

There are other stats that also reflect the team’s ability to avoid extended slumps. The Orioles haven’t lost any of their last 17 series against the AL East, going 12-0-5. They’re also one of three teams in the majors, along with Philadelphia and the Chicago Cubs, that haven’t had a three-game losing streak this year.

The most recent time Baltimore was swept was May 13-15, 2022, at Detroit. So the streak has now hit two years. Rutschman made his big league debut May 21, 2022, and the Orioles started playing a lot better almost immediately.

The streak is tied for third in major league history, according to information from the Elias Sports Bureau via the team. The 1942-44 St. Louis Cardinals went 124 series without being swept, and the 1906-09 Chicago Cubs went 115. The 1903-05 New York Giants also had a 105-series run.

On 14 occasions, the Orioles have needed a win in a series finale to avoid a sweep. They’ve pulled it off each time, including a 12-inning win at Washington earlier this month that prevented a two-game sweep, and then Wednesday’s game against the Blue Jays, when Baltimore didn’t score at all between Jordan Westburg‘s leadoff homer in the first inning and Rutschman’s walk-off shot.

“You normally don’t win games like that when you leave that many guys on base and have that many scoring opportunities,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “But we did because of our pitching today.”

The Orioles had baserunners in eight of the nine innings. They had men on second and third with nobody out in the seventh and first and third with one out in the eighth. Both times they failed to score.

None of that mattered when Rutschman delivered his second career walk-off homer.

“We don’t make it easy on ourselves sometimes,” Hyde said. “We’d like to start cashing in some of these runs and getting some leads and not play so many of these types of games.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

Published

on

By

Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

Published

on

By

Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

Continue Reading

Sports

Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Published

on

By

Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Trending