Orioles' AL record streak without sweeps ends with loss to Cardinals

ST. LOUIS – The series is over. Officially.

The Orioles lost 5-4 to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon, suffering their first regular-season series win since May 13-15, 2022. This ended a streak of 106 consecutive series with at least two decisions for the Orioles without to be defeated, a feat that stands as an American League record and is the third-longest in MLB history behind the 1906–1909 Chicago Cubs (115) and the 1942–44 Cardinals (124).

Although the Orioles (29-18) were swept out of the AL Division Series by the Texas Rangers last October, that winning streak was still a significant accomplishment for an organization that, in that time, went from perennial bottom of the AL East to a contender in the AL East World Series had developed. It took a rainy week in St. Louis with two disruptions, including a suspended game, in three days for the Orioles to exit a winless regular-season series.

Baltimore led 3-0 in the third inning after getting a pair of hits off former Orioles starter Kyle Gibson. The Orioles began Wednesday completing the final three and a half innings of their suspended game on Tuesday night, losing 3-1 and recording just three hits. The Orioles reached that total in the third inning of the finale alone, scoring on RBI singles from Gunnar Henderson and Anthony Santander, while Ryan O’Hearn added another hit on a groundout.

John Means also pitched three scoreless innings, getting off to a strong start before the weather struck again and this time the teams had to sit out an hour and 25 minutes of rain. Means, whose fastball velocity was 2 mph below his season average, did not return to the mound after halftime.

The Orioles instead turned to Cole Irvin, who moved to the bullpen over the weekend after Grayson Rodriguez returned from the injured list. Irvin had a 2.76 ERA before the game, but was unable to replicate that success in his role as relief pitcher on Wednesday. The left-hander allowed five runs (three earned) in three-plus innings as the Cardinals (23-26) stormed back and took the lead in the sixth inning.

St. Louis’ big setback was a Little League home run in which the Orioles made two errors that allowed Brendan Donovan to come all the way around and hit a two-run double. Donovan hit a line drive to center field that Colton Cowser fielded and threw to Henderson, the cutoff man. Henderson, who had recorded his fourth error of the season earlier in the frame, threw catcher James McCann past home plate and McCann then threw the ball away to prevent Donovan from advancing to third.

Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn hit a solo home run off Irvin in the seventh to put the game out of reach for the Orioles. While Irvin took the loss in the end, the Orioles’ offense has faltered of late. Baltimore has scored three runs or fewer in seven of its last nine games. O’Hearn (.577 OPS in that span since Wednesday), Santander (.384), Ryan Mountcastle (.083) and Cedric Mullins (.358) have struggled the most among the team’s regular starters.

The Orioles will look to start a new series on Thursday when they begin a four-game series against the MLB-worst Chicago White Sox (15-34). Rodriguez is scheduled to start for Baltimore and Mike Clevinger for Chicago in the opening game at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Orioles lose suspended game due to Gorman’s unlikely swing

After resuming their rain-interrupted game from Tuesday night, the Orioles lost 3-1 to the Cardinals on Wednesday morning as they managed just three hits.

Play resumed in the bottom of the sixth inning, just over 15 hours after a thunderstorm interrupted the 1-1 game, with Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado set to lead off. The storm spoiled Kyle Bradish’s chance to reach the sixth inning for the first time since he partially tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow this offseason. He needed just 74 pitches to dish out four hits and a walk with six strikeouts over five innings of one-run baseball.

“I think it’s exactly where I needed to be,” Bradish said of his command Wednesday morning. “I was ahead of a lot of hitters and I felt like I was 0-2, 1-2 ahead of most hitters, which kept the pitch count down and led to early contact. So it was a lot better than the previous three.”

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde turned to Jacob Webb for the sixth inning, who struck out the first two batters he faced before Iván Herrera drew a two-out walk. Hyde then went back to the bullpen to bring in Keegan Akin for a lefty-versus-lefty matchup with Nolan Gorman, but the second baseman got Akin deep with a 1-2 fastball in the bottom of the strike zone and hit a home run that gave him the lead. Gorman had previously hit just five of his 48 career home runs against left-handed pitchers, including just one this season.

“They started with Arenado there and a right-left-right pocket in the sixth inning, so we went with Webby,” Hyde said between games. “Unfortunately, there was a walk with two outs and then Akin allows a home run to a guy who bats (.156) against a left-handed pitcher and was good after that. But we had three hits, so it’s hard to win when you have three hits.”

The Cardinals also felt the effects of the rain delay and had to cancel the start of right-hander Lance Lynn after he limited the Orioles to one run in six innings on two hits. To start the seventh inning, they turned to Andrew Kittredge, who struck out four of five batters before JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley combined to ground out.

Baltimore’s only run in the contest was an RBI double by Jorge Mateo in the fifth before the rain delay. The hit tied the game in time for it to be considered an official contest once the rain began, but the Orioles were unable to solve the Cardinals’ bullpen any better than Lynn did.

“That’s what they had to do,” Hyde said of the offense, which didn’t have time to get going as the game didn’t start until the late innings. “We had three hits in the game, so we had to start swinging the bat.”

The teams were awarded a 27th roster spot for the second game; the Orioles brought in reliever Nick Vespi from Triple-A Norfolk to fill that spot, but he did not pitch.

This story will be updated.

Orioles at White Sox

Thursday, 7:40 p.m

TV: MASN

Radio: 97.9FM, 101.5FM, 1090AM