It can be maddening at times to be invested in the Orioles, with energy best spent on individuals instead of what happens on the scoreboard on a nightly basis.
Just as a loss stings more when it’s one of their touted young starters on the hook for it, a win on the back of Ryan Mountcastle, Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and Trey Mancini is all the sweeter.
That’s how the Orioles’ 9-7 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday night at Minute Maid Park will be remembered, and that they won thanks to a five-run ninth inning despite some difficult relief outings will make it one to savor.
After Hunter Harvey and Tanner Scott combined to walk four in the seventh inning, turning a 4-2 lead into a tie game, Mullins singled to open the ninth for his third hit of the game and Hays hit his ninth home run of the year to spark a five-run inning that gave the Orioles (25-54) a win.
Before that, it was Mountcastle’s show. The Orioles’ best hitter of late, his two-out single in the third inning put them ahead 1-0, and with Baltimore trailing 2-1 in the fifth, he hit his 14th home run of the season after a single by Mullins gave the Orioles a 3-2 lead.
The rookie slugger entered Monday batting .341 with a 1.037 OPS, and his blast the other way was his ninth of the month.
He even helped the Orioles — who entered having lost 16 of their past 18 games — pick up an insurance run in the seventh with a hard slide into second base that allowed Ryan McKenna to beat a potential bases-loaded double play to score Hays and make it 4-2.
Mancini’s two hits gave him his first multi-hit game in over a week, perhaps helping the scuffling star out of his slump.
10 walks too many
The Orioles’ top hitters helped remove the red from manager Brandon Hyde’s face after he watched his pitching staff walk nine and walk a tightrope all night long.
Starter Thomas Eshelman had three on his account, including two in the fourth inning. His last left the bases loaded for Cole Sulser, who walked in a run to have Eshelman leave with two runs allowed on five hits in 3 2/3 innings. Sulser walked one more in 1 2/3 innings, and Harvey and Scott’s four in the seventh inning looked like they could be enough to sink their chances.
Tyler Wells, however, continued his emergence as a leverage reliever by striking out two with the bases loaded in the seventh. Adam Plutko issued the 10th to load the bases in a two-run ninth inning before he cleaned up a mess left by Paul Fry to end a tense game.
Fry allowed three runs in the ninth.
Mullins on the ticket
Voting began Monday afternoon for the second phase of All-Star balloting to determine the starters for the July showcase game, and Mullins is the only Orioles player who made it to this stage.
Starters sit
Hyde said before Monday’s game that both Maikel Franco and Anthony Santander were given days off because of how they were pressing at the plate, and noted Santander’s ankle was feeling better the past few days.
Domingo Leyba started at third base and, in his second game with the Orioles after being claimed off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks, collected his first hit of the season.
