Orioles Game #115 Game Thread: vs. Astros, 12:35

The haven’t been swept streak is in danger today. The Orioles have had this happen six previous times this season, series where they lost the first two games and managed to win the third to avert the sweep. To keep it rolling, they must do this once more as they close out the set against the Astros today.

It is always better for the Orioles to win than for them to lose. Today it would be especially nice given all of the things that are bouncing around to add to the negativity in Birdland that have nothing to do with the play of the team on the field.

The earlier this week revelation of MASN handing down some kind of retribution against broadcaster Kevin Brown for completely innocuous comments has sparked a new wave of “John Angelos is the worst” stories across the media. These have included more petty vindictive dictates enforced upon the on-air Orioles broadcasters as well as Angelos’s behavior with regard to negotiations for a lease extension. Based on that reporting, it seems like Angelos is pretty much the sole reason that it has not been done yet.

It would be nice to have a win to dispel some of the gloom and not have to think about that guy for a while, especially since Brown is reportedly going to be back in action for the west coast road trip that will get under way after today’s game. That is up to the players now. It could be that Tuesday was their best chance to win a game in this series and they blew that one.

Orioles lineup

1. Adley Rutschman - DH
2. Gunnar Henderson - SS
3. Anthony Santander - RF
4. Ryan O’Hearn - LF
5. Ryan Mountcastle - 1B
6. Adam Frazier - 2B
7. Austin Hays - CF
8. Ramón Urías - 3B
9. James McCann - C

Dean Kremer will be the Orioles starting pitcher, hopefully up to the task of doing enough to give the Orioles a good chance of winning this game. I’m not optimistic, but then, I never am. Kremer has a 5.35 ERA at Camden Yards this season. Today would certainly be a good day to start changing that for the better.

The Orioles made one roster move before the game. Danny Coulombe was placed on the injured list with tendonitis in his left bicep. The O’s recalled Joey Krehbiel, who is allowed to come back even though he was only optioned a couple of days ago since he’s replacing an injured player. I was a little surprised we didn’t see Coulombe either Tuesday or Wednesday and now we can probably guess why we didn’t.

Astros lineup

1. Jose Altuve - 2B
2. Alex Bregman - 3B
3. Yordan Alvarez - DH
4. Kyle Tucker - RF
5. Yainer Diaz - C
6. Jon Singleton - 1B
7. Mauricio Dubón - LF
8. Jeremy Peña - SS
9. Jake Meyers - CF

The starting pitcher for Houston today is Hunter Brown, no known relation to this writer. Brown has been better on the road this season (3.65 ERA) and he’s also gotten better results in his four second half starts (3.86 ERA) than he had in the first half.

This was not the lineup that the Astros originally posted. Chas McCormick was in left field initially before the team made the change to Dubón. The adjusted lineup just subbed in Dubón in the same lineup spot McCormick had been, in addition to the position.