BALTIMORE -- The Orioles aren’t going to let their postseason hopes die, despite the slim odds.
It hadn’t been looking great of late for Baltimore, which entered Monday on a six-game losing streak and with only a 2.8% chance of reaching the playoffs, according to FanGraphs. However, the O’s were four games back of the third American League Wild Card spot with 18 to play, so they remained mathematically alive.
As long as that’s the case, the Orioles are treating every contest as a big one -- especially this three-game series vs. the Guardians that began Monday afternoon at Camden Yards.
“Even though we lost six straight, there’s still season ahead of us. We’re still in it,” manager Craig Albernaz said prior to the opener vs. Cleveland. “We have to not look at, and flush, the last six games and look ahead.”
The O’s did exactly that as they snapped their season-long skid with a 6-4 victory over the Guardians. Trevor Rogers tossed a season-high 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball, Coby Mayo belted a pair of home runs and lefty Josh Walker recorded his first career save for the club’s 70th win of the campaign.
Baltimore (70-75) now sits three games back of Cleveland (73-72), though it also trails Toronto and Texas in a crowded AL Wild Card battle.
A sweep would be huge for the Orioles this series. Not only because it would help them reestablish positive momentum and pull them closer to the Guardians, but it would give them the potential tiebreaker between the two teams. (Cleveland leads the season series, 3-2.)
But the O’s can’t -- and won’t -- look too far ahead. Their aim is to start stacking wins.
Rogers cruised for much of Monday’s outing, as the 28-year-old left-hander retired 20 of the 26 Guardians batters he faced, including 16 in a row after Steven Kwan’s leadoff single in the first. Cleveland’s lone run off Rogers came via a trio of two-out hits in the sixth, with Jo Adell blooping an RBI double into right to cut the Orioles’ lead to 4-1.
Baltimore immediately responded, though, via Mayo’s second home run of the day and 21st of the season -- a two-run shot off right-hander Slade Cecconi. The Statcast-projected 411-foot blast gave the 24-year-old Mayo the first multi-homer game of his 218-game MLB career.
Mayo also homered in the third, a 426-foot solo shot off left-hander Joey Cantillo, his MLB-high 16th homer off a southpaw this year. (No other player entered Monday with more than 14.) Mayo is two homers vs. lefties from tying Gary Roenicke (1983) for the most against southpaws in a season in O’s history (since 1954).
The Orioles drew seven walks, all coming during the first three innings. Their three-run rally in the third also featured bases-loaded free passes for Blaze Alexander and Pete Alonso.