BALTIMORE _ For 71 minutes Saturday afternoon, Andrew Cashner was not scheduled to start for the Orioles. The threat of imminent weather and an eventual delay prompted manager Brandon Hyde to announce instead that right-handed reliever Shawn Armstrong would start, so as to not waste any of that inning Cashner's right arm could provide if the delay came in-game.
Instead, a 66-minute delay preceded the Orioles' meeting with the Cleveland Indians, and after a brief dose of rain at Camden Yards, it was the Orioles pouring it on in support of Cashner in a second straight 13-0 victory. The Orioles became the first team in major league history to record consecutive shutouts by that wide of a margin, per STATS. Their second straight drubbing of a competitive Indians team gave them their first series victory in more than two months and their first consecutive victories in nearly the same span.
A night after setting a season high in runs, Saturday marked the Orioles' second straight double-digit run output after having just two double-digit efforts through their first 80 games. They also had only one shutout before Friday, entering this series with 13 defeats in the prior 14 games.
Saturday provided the Orioles' first series victory since April 22-24 against the Chicago White Sox and first consecutive wins since May 4-6. It was also their first back-to-back shutouts since Sept. 2-3, 2016, as an Orioles pitching staff that has struggled for the better part of the year has now put together a scoreless streak of 19 innings.
Cashner (8-3) was at his best after being scratched less than an hour before the scheduled start time and announced again as the starter about the same amount of time before its official beginning. He put together his fourth straight quality start amid a June in which he has posted a 1.44 ERA. He retired the first 11 Indians before All-Star Carlos Santana's two-out single in the fourth. Cashner then didn't allow a runner to reach second until the seventh. He stranded him there as he completed seven scoreless innings, using his changeup more than he has in any start this season against Cleveland's lefty-heavy lineup.
The Orioles' lineup seemingly couldn't stop scoring. Starting with a six-run fourth inning that broke open a 1-0 game, they scored multiple runs in four straight innings.
Hanser Alberto has risen to being the American League's leader in batting average by hitting well against lefties and against fastball, but he put the Orioles on the board in the second with an RBI double off a slider from right-hander Zach Plesac.
It was the only run Plesac allowed through three innings while Cashner retired each Cleveland batter he faced in that time. But Anthony Santander led off the fourth with 100th home run onto Eutaw Street in Camden Yards history, a day after Chance Sisco hit the 99th. Jonathan Villar and Trey Mancini built the lead to 5-0 with run-scoring hits before Renato Nunez put a cap on it with a two-run home run to chase Plesac.
Mancini, who will potentially be announced as an All-Star for the first time in his career Sunday, trickled a bases-loaded single up the middle in the fifth. Sisco and Nunez added two-run homers in the next two frames. Nunez's second blast of the day came off Cleveland infielder Mike Freeman, who then pitched a perfect ninth.
