The Orioles are now winners of six of their last seven games, which feels pretty great. Fears of a 4-32 tailspin like all the way back in 2002 can be safely banished. They may yet sputter again on the way to the finish line of the season, but at least they've made us feel better for a little while.
Maybe they'll even leave us feeling better again tonight against the Red Sox. They go in to this game with a chance to grab a sweep, and win their fourth straight game overall. They've only won 4+ games in a row four times this season. If they're going to do it tonight, they'll need to have their offense be better than Henry Owens, a 6'6", 23 year old lety starter who began the season as a consensus top 50 prospect in all of MLB - rated as highly as #19 according to MLB.com.
The beginning of Owens' MLB career has not been glorious. Over seven starts he's averaging barely more than five innings pitched per start and he's sporting a 5.25 ERA. It would be just like the Orioles to be the team that gets owned by him on the way to him winning the next three Cy Youngs starting next year, of course. He's had exactly one quality start in his seven MLB starts - an eight inning, one run effort against the Royals last month.
Meanwhile, the Orioles will have their own rookie starting, but their rookie will be Mike Wright, who was never a top 100 prospect. Wright has also struggled in his young big league career, of course. His early big league starts make me think he's pitching like the next Tommy Hunter, and the sooner the Orioles realize that and get him into the bullpen, the better. I predict he will give up a home run to David Ortiz tonight - or perhaps he'll make like Brian Matusz instead and give up the dinger to Travis Shaw instead. After an 0-2 count, of course.