Sunday afternoon Orioles game thread: vs. Cleveland, 1:05

While we all hold our breaths to hear the results of John Means’ MRI on his shoulder today — and to be cautious, the O’s placed him on the 10-day injured list and recalled Zac Lowther — the Orioles have a game to play in the meantime. And they’re in position to win their second straight home series after failing to win any of their first seven.

Of course, they were also in position to do so yesterday, only to fall to the Cleveland Baseball Team in an uncompetitive game that featured Means’ worrying first-inning exit. This afternoon they’ll try again with arguably their second best starter right now, Jorge Lopez, who has posted a 3.18 ERA in his last three starts. Most encouragingly, Lopez has successfully completed six innings in each of his last two starts, something he hadn’t ever done this year before then.

The Birds caught a break in that Cleveland elected not to start ace Shane Bieber today, even though he would’ve been on normal rest. Instead, they’re turning to Cal Quantrill, who has a 2.08 ERA but isn’t really stretched out, having made just one prior start this season after 17 relief appearances. The O’s can expect to see more of the Cleveland bullpen this afternoon.

Does Cedric Mullins have an encore in store after his ridiculous 5-for-5, two-homer day on Saturday? We shall soon find out.

Orioles lineup:

CF Cedric Mullins
1B Trey Mancini
DH Anthony Santander
SS Freddy Galvis
LF Ryan Mountcastle
RF DJ Stewart
3B Maikel Franco
2B Ramon Urias
C Austin Wynns

RHP Jorge Lopez

Cleveland lineup:

2B Cesar Hernandez
SS Amed Rosario
DH Jose Ramirez
LF Eddie Rosario
CF Harold Ramirez
RF Josh Naylor
3B Yu Chang
1B Bobby Bradley
C Rene Rivera

RHP Cal Quantrill