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John Means will take the mound for the Orioles tonight. It’d be hard for him to top what he did last week.
The Orioles are back on the road for a two-game set with the Mets, and Means will take his 4-0 record and 1.37 ERA to the hill to get things started.
It’s Means’s first outing since his no-hitter against the Mariners on Wednesday. In what was just a dazzling display, Means struck out 12, threw first-pitch strikes to 26 of 27 hitters, and allowed only one baserunner on a wild pitch strike three. It wasn’t a perfect game officially, but it’d be hard to come up with a better performance.
His ERA is second best in the American League, his 50 strikeouts rank fourth, and his 0.674 WHIP is first in the AL and second in all of baseball. He’s been terrific.
His counterpart today will be Marcus Stroman, whom the Orioles and their fans certainly know well from his days with the Blue Jays. Stroman has done well himself this season, compiling a 3-3 record with a 2.12 ERA. It’s not often you can have that ERA and a 1.03 WHIP and have the higher numbers in both stats in the pitching matchup, but that’s the case tonight. Probably won’t be too many runs scored (of course, now that I’ve mentioned it...).
Orioles lineup
1. Cedric Mullins CF
2. Austin Hays RF
3. Trey Mancini 1B
4. Ryan Mountcastle LF
5. Freddy Galvis SS
6. Maikel Franco 3B
7. Rio Ruiz 2B
8. Pedro Severino C
9. John Means P
LHP John Means
Mets lineup
1. Jeff McNeil 2B
2. Francisco Lindor SS
3. Michael Conforto RF
4. Pete Alonso 1B
5. Kevin Pillar LF
6. Jonathan Villar 3B
7. James McCann C
8. Albert Almora CF
9. Marcus Stroman P
RHP Marcus Stroman