The Baltimore Orioles don’t have a lot of time to regain their pre-All-Star break form. With them down to their final 15 regular-season games, they’ll look to end the cycle of mediocrity during a three-game weekend series in Detroit, which begins Friday night.
The Orioles (83-64) entered the break 20 games over .500. They have posted a 25-26 record since that point and trail the New York Yankees by two games for the American League East lead.
Baltimore has lost five of its past seven games, including a 5-3, 10-inning defeat at Boston on Wednesday. Tyler O’Neill blasted a three-run homer off Keegan Akin to give the Red Sox a walk-off win.
“We’re at kind of a crucial point right now. Haven’t really been playing our best ball, but I think it’s coming, I do,” Akin said. “You’re starting to see a little bit of it. Just got to kind of put it all together at one time, and I think we’ll go from there.”
The biggest problem lately has been the lack of punch by the vaunted Orioles offense. Baltimore has produced just 15 runs during that seven-game stretch.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde saw signs of his team coming out of its slumber during Wednesday’s contest.
“I thought we were really unlucky offensively the last third of the game,” Hyde said. “I thought we hit a lot of balls hard. Credit to them, they made some nice plays defensively, too. But they just got the big hit (Wednesday).”
Zach Eflin (10-8, 3.65 ERA) will start the series opener in Detroit. The right-hander endured a bout with shoulder inflammation in August but returned on Sept. 1 and held Colorado to one run in seven innings.
In his last outing on Saturday, Eflin gave up three runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings to Tampa Bay and saw his personal five-game winning streak snapped.
Eflin won his lone career start against Detroit, giving up one run in five innings last season.
The Tigers have not named a starter for Friday’s contest. Detroit had a four-game winning streak snapped on Thursday afternoon with a 4-2 loss at home to the Colorado Rockies. Spencer Torkelson drove in the Tigers’ only two runs with a double.
Detroit enters the weekend 3 1/2 games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final AL wild-card berth.
“All losses (stink),” Torkelson said. “I don’t think it matters what the result of it is. Just, losing (stinks). They just beat us today and that’s that. Come back tomorrow ready to go.”
Just being in the hunt for a playoff spot wasn’t expected when the Tigers were sellers at the trade deadline.
“I’ve seen the lows,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “Going back to 2019 and seeing what we’ve kind of built to now. It’s fun to win, man. Everybody in this clubhouse, I want them to get the feeling of being in the hunt and being able to push in September. We’ve got a good enough team to do it.”
The Tigers got a major scare when ace Tarik Skubal, the AL Cy Young Award favorite, injured his non-throwing hand while snaring a line drive on Thursday. He remained in the game and initial X-rays were negative, however.
“It was a scary situation and you hold your breath until you get the full array of tests,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
