BALTIMORE—On August 21, the night Orioles tied the major league record by allowing their 258th home run, manager Brandon Hyde was asked about the spate of long balls.
“We’ve given up a ton of homers,” Hyde said. “What’s the record … 258? So, if it’s 259 or 330, I don’t care. I just want us to get better on the mound and obviously finish this year and go into next year trying to do a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark and staying off the barrel, but home runs are up.”
Home runs continue to be hit against Oriole pitching, but not as many.
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Hyde wasn’t using hyperbole when he mentioned 330 home runs because at the time of the tying homer, the Orioles were on a pace to allow 328.
With 11 games to play entering Wednesday night, the Orioles have allowed 29 in the past 22 games. They still lead the major leagues with a total of 287, but if they don’t average more than a home run a game during the rest of the season, they’ll avoid giving up 300.
There has been some progress. The Orioles have allowed four or more home runs in 23 games this season, but none since August 12.
They’ve allowed 10 or more runs 25 times, but only once since August 18.
Injury updates: Renato Nunez, Mark Trumbo and Mason Williams weren’t in the starting lineup. Nunez’s bruised left hand and Trumbo’s back are better and they could play if needed.
Williams crashed in the fence in left-center on Cavan Biggio’s ninth-inning triple.
“[He’s] sore in a few places,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “It was quite a collision last night. There’s no concussion symptoms. That’s fine. It’s more of his shoulder, his knee and the rest of his body that hit the wall.”
According to Hyde, Alex Cobb, who underwent hip surgery in June, is recovering well.
“We’d love to have Alex Cobb healthy in here and pitching for us,” Hyde said. “I haven’t talked to Alex in a long time. I do get the daily medical reports on how he’s doing, and it sounds like he’s recovering well. It sounds like, hopefully, he’s going to be ready to go in spring training.
“We’ve missed Alex, and having a veteran starter like that. There’s a lot of value to that … experience, a guy who’s pitched in the American League East for a long time. Really good second half last year. We were hoping it was going to translate into this year, but injuries happened.
“We’re hoping he bounces back and recovers and is part of the rotation next year.”
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