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Friday night Orioles game thread: at Angels, 9:38

Coming off a sweep, the Orioles can make it a four-game winning streak if they can beat the Angels on Friday night.

By Mark Brown
Baltimore Orioles v Cleveland Indians Photo by Ron Schwane/Getty Images

Another day, another Orioles roster move. For Friday night, the move is Hunter Harvey to the injured list with a right lat strain. He is expected to be out for at least a month. The Orioles recalled Zac Lowther back from Norfolk to take Harvey’s spot on the roster. The cosmic ballet goes on.

The Orioles unexpectedly enter this series out in California on a three-game road winning streak, after having swept the Astros. Whether they can keep it going against the 39-41 Angels is something we will find out tonight.

The Angels are an annual disappointment, it seems, and their starting rotation is absolutely part of the mess. Tonight’s starter, Griffin Canning, is one of two Angels starters with a season ERA under 5. The other is Shohei Ohtani, who will be batting but probably not pitching over the course of this series. Canning was awful in April but has pitched capably since. The Orioles aren’t catching him at his worst.

Six starts into his 2021 season, Keegan Akin has yet to go more than 5.2 innings, and in that longest outing of his year, he gave up eight earned runs. It’s not great to sit here on 4th of July weekend with a starting pitcher whose ERA is over 7.

Orioles lineup

  1. Cedric Mullins - CF
  2. Austin Hays - LF
  3. Trey Mancini - DH
  4. Ryan Mountcastle - 1B
  5. Anthony Santander - RF
  6. Pedro Severino - C
  7. Domingo Leyba - 3B
  8. Ramón Urias - SS
  9. Pat Valaika - 2B

You may note the absence of Maikel Franco from this starting lineup. He slipped awkwardly while pursing the game-ending catch in the last game of the Astros series and appeared to have tweaked his ankle. It’s not enough to get him on the injured list, yet, but it is enough that he’s still not starting two days later. Before the game, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters that x-rays were negative and Franco is available as a pinch hitter. Hopefully Franco is better soon.

Angels lineup

  1. David Fletcher - 2B
  2. Shohei Ohtani - DH
  3. Anthony Rendon - 3B
  4. Jared Walsh - 1B
  5. Phil Gosselin - LF
  6. Max Stassi - C
  7. Jose Iglesias - SS
  8. Taylor Ward - RF
  9. Juan Lagares - CF

Yes, that’s former Oriole Iglesias there. He’s hitting .271/.296/.386 so far this year. I think the O’s probably sold high there. Even with Mike Trout and Justin Upton out, there are some decent hitters in the lineup. Ohtani is amazing, obviously, and the 4-5-6 line of Walsh, Gosselin, and Stassi has played well. Gosselin and Stassi are still below 100 at-bats for the year, so it’s a small sample size.

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