Orioles starter Jorge López entered Friday night’s game against the Texas Rangers with an 11.42 ERA in his first two starts. López pitched five strong innings and was backed by home runs from DJ Stewart and Rio Ruiz in the Orioles’ 5-2 win over the Texas Rangers in Baltimore’s first game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
López didn’t allow a hit in his first four innings and began the fifth by giving up home runs to David Dahl and Nick Solak. After retiring the next three hitters, he was pulled after 75 pitches. López struck out eight and walked one.
Manager Brandon Hyde was relieved to see a solid outing from his fourth starter.
“He’s had his trouble there in the fourth and fifth inning so far this season,” Hyde said. “So the third time in the order, coming back around, it was unfortunate with the two home runs, but I was so encouraged by his first four innings. That was so aggressive, pitching his fastball to both sides of the plate, showing them a good curveball. It was dominating and, hopefully, he can build off this one.” ‘
López said he had better stuff against Texas than he had in his first two starts.
“It was much different than the first two,” López said. “Curveball, changeup was really good … every pitch I threw, I kept attacking.”
López, whose fastball topped out at 97 mph, said he could have continued.
“I wanted another inning, but Hyde has his plan, and I believe in him,” López said.
The Orioles scored in the third on a triple by shortstop Freddy Galvis and a double by centerfielder Cedric Mullins against Mike Foltynewicz. Ruiz homered in the fourth. In the fifth, the Orioles scored three runs on rightfielder Anthony Santander’s sacrifice fly and Stewart’s two-run home run, his first.
In their doubleheader loss to Seattle on Thursday, the Orioles had just three runs and seven hits in 14 innings.
“Two great swings,” Hyde said. “Great to see Rio drive the ball the other way. It was the shortest swing he’s had this season.”
The Orioles had all seven of their hits in the first five innings. Their final 14 hitters were retired in order.
“We did a lot of good things in the third through fifth innings offensively,” Hyde said.
With the expected return of Austin Hays from a left hamstring strain in the next few days, Hyde will have more decisions to make. Besides Mullins and Santander in center and right, Hays, Stewart and Ryan Mountcastle might have to jockey for playing time in left and at designated hitter.
“It will be a matchup, rotation type of thing,” Hyde said. “I don’t think you can have enough good players on your roster. You can always find a way to get guys into the game. Guys need days off, guys need rest. The more good players you have, the better.”
The home run, which traveled 436 feet, was Stewart’s first since September 14, 2020, when he concluded a run of seven homers in nine games.
“It was huge, just momentum-wise, confidence-wise,” Stewart said. “It was big for us to get some early and put them away.”
Stewart had missed five weeks because of a strained left hamstring and hit his first homer in his seventh game.
“I feel good. Some at-bats, the first two at-bats today, I was having trouble picking up, timing-wise because [Foltynewicz] was working super, super quick, throwing my timing off.
“The third at-bat helped me because we had guys in front of us like Freddy starting it off. Cedric’s on base, and any time Cedric’s on base, it’s a big time threat for him to go, and I think that forced him to slow down a little bit, and helped me out big time.”
Left-hander Paul Fry retired the five batters he faced in relief of López. Dillon Tate hit a batter and allowed a hit but recorded the final out of the seventh. Adam Plutko threw a spotless eighth, and César Valdez worked the ninth for his third save. The four relievers combined for four scoreless innings, giving up just two hits.
In the ninth, Texas had runners on first and third on a throwing error by third baseman Maikel Franco and an infield single by Solak. Valdez struck out Jose Trevino to end the game.
The Orioles are 6-8 and 5-2 on the road.
Notes: Mullins, who hit in the season’s first 11 games, and Galvis each had two hits. Mullins became a full-time left-handed hitter this season after struggling from the right side as a switch-hitter.
“I’ve seen this before,” Stewart said. “Obviously, everyone’s shocked with him going just the left-handed side, which is super impressive for someone who hasn’t been doing that that long, staying in there against those lefties. I’ve seen him locked in like this before in the minor leagues. It doesn’t surprise me, and I hope it continues because when he goes, we all go.”
Mullins is hitting .396 with a 1.043 OPS. … Oriole pitchers struck out 15 Rangers, their most since September 20, 2020 when they struck out 16 Tampa Bay Rays.
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View Comments
Great article Rich! Very encouraging outing by Lopez and also nice to see the bats warm up a bit.
Who goes down when Hayes is activated. Mancini is trying to hard but you got to like his grit coming off all he’s been through. Something the guy he replaced on first base doesn’t have.
:)...go O’s...
McKenna will probably be sent down.
Good to see consistency in your Chris Davis comments! He is a honorary member of the LUDONI Association of America, with special NG (no grit) award...
W !
Amazing the difference when this team hits the road. Ruiz looking smooth at 2B,if Lopez isn't a starter down the road(runs out of gas after 4) that kind of stuff would look awfully good in the 5 thru 7th inning,don't know what to say about Mancini. Starting to think that recovering from cancer may have some semi-permenant effects. Certainly hope not. Maybe a change in stance(a little upright a la Chris Davis).
Totally agree with the stance, it’s been awhile & I can’t really remember his stance two yrs ago, was it the same?...go O’s...
There’s no semi permanent effects. It’s just a lot to come back so quick. They should rest him periodically and have Mountcastle play first now that Hays is coming back. Maybe DH him awhile
Fun game to be at last night! O’s had good pitching, good defense and timely hitting. What’s up with that!! Stewart just crushed his HR which as Rich quoted had to be a confidence builder. Not a lot of O’s fans in attendance but I had fun with the Ranger fans. Would love to see a sweep!
Didn't see a good look at your seating section Txbirdfan. Way more fans there than I thought there'd be. Saw more Black O's jerseys than Orange. As CP says......go O's.....
Just curious TxBird--which stadium did/ do you prefer this one or Arlington? This one seems awfully dark and gloomy.
Orial - good question. I’ve had Ranger season tickets for 6 years and so far I prefer the look and feel of the old stadium. I’ve been to a lot of stadiums and next to Camden, the old Ranger stadium was my 2nd favorite. I love the red brick and real grass - it just feels like a ballpark should feel. The new stadium is mostly metal and glass and just isn’t as attractive. I’ll probably “warm” up to the new place, especially when I’m not sweating through another 100 degree game. Sitting in the sun for 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon in Texas is never good for you unless you’re trying to lose weight and get a sunburn.
The road and home splits of this team are very weird. Lopez and Ruiz are so inconsistent. They show you just enough to warrant keeping around. Good to see players like Santander and Mountcastle continue to have good at bats regardless of the outcome.
Through 7 home and 7 road games
Batting: OPS at home 0.681, OPS on road 0.624...
Pitching: ERA/OPS against at home: 6.32/0.901, on the road 3.29/0.624
MSRM
Jooray for Jorge!!!
Clever, I like it...go O’s...
Mancini slumps, duration >= 10 games, BA < 0.200
4/3/21 - 4/16/21 8-53 0.151
8/13/19 - 8/23/19 5-36 0.139
6/30/19 - 7/14/19 4-37 0.108
8/31/18 - 9/11/18 7-39 0.179
5/16/18 - 7/14/18 29-175 0.166
4/25/18 - 5/5/18 8-41 0.195
8/11/17 - 8/21/17 6-37 0.162
4/19/17 - 5/2/17 4-32 0.125
MSRM!
Where are the Paul Fry haters who wanted him booted after 1.2 innings?
Looked pretty good last night...go O’s...
Dane Dunning might be a budding beast of a pitcher, the Rangers have won 7 of 9 games he's started over 2020-2021. He's only thrown 70 and 71 pitches in his two 2021 games, hopefully he's on similar pitch count today and the O's can get to the Ranger's bullpen...
No Sisco today against another RH pitcher. Yes he’s terrible but so is Sevy . Sorry to upset his agent PJ. Is Adley even playing baseball yet ?
Just practicing...go O’s...
Practicing lol
PJ may show up as Sevy’sagentneedsabiggercut, been changing his “handle” a lot...go O’s...
I miss Boogs comments
Agree, he had some great insight of the game...wish he’d come back...hope all is well with him...go O’s...
Boog lives somewhere here in Texas now and I was hoping to see him for a game. Boog...if you’re reading this....I’ll be at the O’s/Rangers game tomorrow!!!!
TxBirdFan, if you see him tell we said “Hey”...go O’s...
Severino apologizes for not playing up to your standards BHoff! He pledges to do his best!
MSRM
If he plays up to your standards then it’s ok with me
Who called the game the other day, it wasn’t Scott Garceau. Who ever it was, I really enjoyed his play calling. I can’t say that about Garceau!! Sorry Scott .
Probably Kevin Brown & Ben McDonald. They've been pairing Garceau with Palmer