The Orioles waited an additional hour to open their three-game series against the Astros on Monday night, then another 41 minutes in the 11 o’clock hour, riding out an inclement weather cell that lingered for much of the evening over Oriole Park. They waited even longer for their first hit. But by the end of a long, soggy night, Baltimore narrowly avoided finding itself on the wrong side of history.
For that the O’s have to thank Maikel Franco, whose two-out, two-run, eighth-inning homer saved them from being collectively no-hit in the 10-2 loss to the Astros. Baltimore had mustered just two baserunners (via walk and hit-by-pitch) off three Houston pitchers before Franco connected with a 1-2 slider from Brandon Bielak, sending it a projected 420 feet over the left-center-field wall. It was the closest the Orioles have come to getting no-hit since July 14, 2019, when Hanser Alberto broke up a combined Rays effort with a leadoff single in the ninth.
The Orioles haven’t been no-hit since Mariners righty Hisashi Iwakuma accomplished the feat on Aug. 12, 2015. The last time they were no-hit at home was by Red Sox righty Hideo Nomo on April 4, 2001.
“As a team, we don’t want that,” Franco said. “None of us want that. We don’t want that. We wanted to break up that no-hitter, and when it happened everybody got excited.”
Those records seemed in jeopardy through seven rain-soaked innings on Monday at Oriole Park, where Jake Odorizzi and Cristian Javier held the Orioles to DJ Stewart’s fifth-inning walk. Bielak replaced Javier after a 41-minute rain delay to open the eighth, striking out Stewart, then plunking Austin Hays ahead of Franco’s homer.
Stevie Wilkerson followed with a clean single up the middle. Prior, the closest the Orioles came to a hit was in the second when Abraham Toro fielded Hays’ chopper behind the third-base bag and made a strong throw across the diamond to beat Hays by a half-step.
All told, Orioles batters struck only six batted balls that had an expected batting average of at least .300, six with at least a 95 mph exit velocity and struck out 15 times.
“Tonight wasn’t very fun,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Odorizzi was pitching [from the] top of the zone to above the zone with his four-seamer, and we weren’t disciplined tonight. We were playing right into his hands. [Cristian] Javier has a great arm and was kind of similar. We made a lot of passes at the baseball on pitches we couldn’t drive. That’s an area our young players need to improve on [in order] to hit good pitching in this league.”
Meanwhile, the Astros tagged rookie left-hander Keegan Akin for five runs in four-plus innings, then piled on against Travis Lakins Sr. and Mac Sceroler. The result was the Orioles’ 12th loss in 13 games, but a sense of relief given what was at stake.
“Everyone was aware of it going into the fifth or sixth inning,” Akin said. “It was a big relief when Maikel hit that home run. You never want to get no-hit, so it was nice to see that broken up.”