Wednesday afternoon Orioles game thread: at Mariners, 3:40

It’s John Means Day, y’all!

The Orioles’ ace left-hander, who began this six-game West Coast road trip with a brilliant performance, will hope to finish it the same way. Means heads into this afternoon’s rubber game in Seattle with a 3-0 record, 1.70 ERA, and 0.838 WHIP in six outings, and he’s twirled three straight quality starts, including a seven-inning, three-hit gem in Oakland last time out.

Only one team has scored more than two runs against him this year, and that team was these Mariners, who plated three in five innings in Baltimore on April 13. For anyone else on the O’s pitching staff, that would be considered a perfectly acceptable outing, but for Means it was arguably his shakiest of the season.

If not for the potential of watching Means dominate, I’d suggest you could probably ignore the first seven innings of this game and just tune in for the eighth, if the first two games of this series are any indication. Both games have been decided by four-run eighth inning rallies, with the Orioles doing the honors in Monday’s game and the Mariners returning suit on Tuesday. Perhaps Means will see to it that the burden won’t be placed on the shoulders of the overworked Orioles bullpen. But the O’s offense will also need to do its part, especially in clutch situations, after going a woeful 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position in the first two games.

A win today would send the Orioles home with a 4-2 record and two winning series on their trip to the left coast. Not too shabby. Can they do it?

Orioles lineup:

CF Cedric Mullins
LF Austin Hays
DH Trey Mancini
C Pedro Severino
3B Maikel Franco
1B Ryan Mountcastle
2B Pat Valaika
RF DJ Stewart
SS Ramon Urias

LHP John Means

Mariners lineup:

RF Mitch Haniger
DH Ty France
3B Kyle Seager
CF Kyle Lewis
C Tom Murphy
1B Evan White
2B Dylan Moore
LF Sam Haggerty
SS J.P. Crawford

LHP Yusei Kikuchi