Pedro Severino’s grand slam, Keegan Akin’s career outing lead Orioles past Angels, 13-1, for first series win of August
A frequent problem during the Orioles’ freshly ended 19-game losing streak was the offense’s inability to get a big hit. But Thursday afternoon against the Los Angeles Angels, the club showed Wednesday’s victory wasn’t an aberration.
Catcher Pedro Severino’s first-pitch grand slam in the bottom of the fifth inning broke open what became a 13-1 victory, giving the Orioles consecutive wins for the first time in close to a month and their first series victory of August. Of their 33 home runs this month, it was their first with a runner in scoring position.
“It was a kind of an emotional night last night,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Following it up by a nice win today, it’s a good feeling.”
Severino was also behind the plate for left-hander Keegan Akin’s best outing of his young career. A rookie who has struggled much of this season, Akin allowed a leadoff home run to Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani and dealt with traffic on the bases early, but cruised late as he pitched a career-high seven innings. The only hits he allowed beyond the home run were a bunt single and a misplayed flyball.
Ohtani’s league-leading 41st home run put the Orioles (40-86) behind early, but Jahmai Jones, who was called up Monday ahead of this series against his former organization, doubled and scored in the third inning to tie the game. It seemed as if the Orioles would score again in the fourth, but the inning’s first out came when a quick replay review showed Trey Mancini was out at home trying to score on Ramón Urías’ single.
Mancini made up for it in the fifth, bouncing a two-out single up the middle after walks to Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle to give Baltimore a 2-1 lead. After an RBI double from DJ Stewart, Urías’ walk to loaded the bases prompted a pitching change. Severino pounded Jake Petricka’s first offering, an elevated sinker, into the Orioles’ bullpen in left-center to make it 7-1.
“I just tried to help the team and just tried to help the team win and I didn’t try to do too much with that ball,” said Severino, who finished with a career-high six RBIs. “I just got bases loaded right there and just tried to put my barrel on it and I got a good result.”
Severino, Urías and Mountcastle drove in a pair of runs each in Baltimore’s final two innings. The Orioles scored 31 runs in the three-game series, more than they had in the preceding 13 games combined as part of the longest losing streak in Major League Baseball since 2005, just two shy of the 1988 Orioles’ season-opening 21-game skid that set the American League and club records.
“We scored some runs last two days and got some big hits that we haven’t gotten, really, for the last couple of months, kind of back-breaking hits,” Hyde said. “We’ve had our problems with that. ... I think our approaches were improved the last couple days.”
Major Kee
Including Ohtani’s home run, the Angels got their leadoff batter on base in each of Akin’s first five innings. But he erased the last of those runners on a pickoff at first amid retiring the next eight batters he faced, needing only 20 pitches over his final three frames.
”I thought Keegan got better as the game went on,” Hyde said. “I thought the command was a little iffy early, the slider was a little flat. But he improved as the game went on. The command got better, the fastball had a little life, it seemed like to me. I liked the way he pitched in to the majority of the hitters. He was very aggressive and when we got the lead, even more aggressive.
“Seven really good innings from Keegan and gave our bullpen the rest they needed.”
Working exclusively out of the stretch to “make things simple, keep it easy, keep it repeatable,” Akin became the first Oriole since John Means on May 24 to complete seven innings, striking out six while allowing three hits. Los Angeles got a runner on second base against him only once, when Akin hit Kurt Suzuki with a pitch to open the second and Stewart lost a flyball to left field in the afternoon sun that allowed Jo Adell to reach with a single. Akin then struck out the side, all on fastballs.
“That’s what you dream of as a starting pitcher,” said Akin, who picked up his first win of the season (1-8). “You want to go out there and go six, seven innings, eighth innings almost every outing. Obviously, it’s a lot harder to do that than it is to say to do it, so it’s a great feeling and good to finally get a series win.”
Akin has lowered his ERA by nearly a full run over his past three starts, with Thursday’s performance dropping the figure to 7.26.
Around the horn
Orioles infielder Jorge Mateo was out of the lineup for a second straight day after exiting Tuesday’s game with lower back discomfort.
High-A Aberdeen outfielder Hudson Haskin, Baltimore’s second-round draft pick in 2020, suffered a broken thumb and is done for the season.
Hyde said he was unsure whether Chris Ellis, the spot starter who opened Wednesday’s streak-snapping victory, would remain in the rotation. Hyde reiterated he wanted to do what was best for Jorge López, who largely struggled in the Orioles’ rotation but pitched the final two innings with four strikeouts Thursday for his second straight scoreless appearance since moving to the bullpen.
RAYS@ORIOLES
Friday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN2 Radio: 105.7 FM
