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Last night, the Orioles staved off a sweep at the hands of the Twins with a dramatic eighth-inning rally. Salvaging the one game against Minnesota was a big emotional boost, but it’d be nice if they could score a few more runs, a few innings earlier.
This could be a tough assignment. The Orioles are temporarily without Jordan Westburg and Austin Hays, who both took one for the team on Sunday, Westburg with a ball off the hand and Hays with a hip contusion suffered in a collision with the first baseman.
And they’re facing a starter whose last outing was literally perfect. Last Wednesday, against the Oakland A’s Domingo Germán tossed just the 24th perfect game in MLB history. The Athletics aren’t striking fear in opposing pitchers’ hearts this season, but a perfecto is still a perfecto.
Oddly enough, however, in the two starts immediately prior, Germán was terrible: he gave up 15 earned runs, 15 hits, and five home runs in just 5.1 innings. Baseball is funny sometimes. So, as Paul Folkemer put it in his series preview, “it wouldn’t be a surprise if Germán had another brilliant outing in him on this night, but it also wouldn’t be a shocker for the O’s to send him to an early exit.” Both outcomes seem equally likely.
What also seems likely is for Orioles right hander Tyler Wells (6-4, 3.21 ERA) to deliver another solid outing. In five starts in June, he allowed exactly two earned runs, with five to seven baserunners in each. Wells has struggled against the Yankees this season (he gave up four runs against them on April 9 and five on May 24), but with any luck for the Birds, his latest stretch of success speaks louder than his earlier struggles against New York.
Orioles lineup
1. Gunnar Henderson 3B
2. Adley Rutschman C
3. Anthony Santander DH
4. Ryan O’Hearn 1B
5. Ramón Urías 2B
6. Cedric Mullins CF
7. Aaron Hicks LF
8. Adam Frazier RF
9. Jorge Mateo SS
Yankees lineup
1. DJ LeMahieu 3B
2. Gleyber Torres 2B
3. Giancarlo Stanton RF
4. Anthony Rizzo 1B
5. Harrison Bader CF
6. Josh Donaldson DH
7. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa LF
8. Anthony Volpe SS
9. Kyle Higashioka C
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