Bombs away: Astros hit 6 HRs in romp
Orioles suffer worst defeat since infamous 30-3 game
ASTROS 23, ORIOLES 2
In a season and homestand full of embarrassing, frustrating defeats for the Orioles, the Houston Astros surpassed perhaps all measures Saturday at Camden Yards.
The Orioles lost 23-2, surrendering a score of runs for the first time since their infamous 30-3 loss to the Texas Rangers in 2007.
Houston scored nine runs behind four home runs in the first three innings, but their biggest frame was a six-run seventh featuring a Yordan Álvarez grand slam, one of the rookie’s three home runs.
Even as the Orioles (38-78) have stormed toward the major league record for home runs allowed while posting baseball’s worst ERA as a staff, they had yet to have a night like Saturday.
The numbers of the defeat are staggering, and not even Stevie Wilkerson’s return to the mound for the final 11⁄3 innings could slow down Astros’ offensive onslaught.
For the 62nd time, the Orioles allowed multiple home runs, a major league record for a team’s first 116 games. They set the mark in the first inning, with Alex Bregman and Álvarez going back to back off Aaron Brooks.
474
With the Astros already leading 8-1 in the third, shortstop Carlos Correa hit the longest home run at Camden Yards since Statcast began tracking in 2015.
The solo shot off Brooks had a projected distance of 474 feet, surpassing Manny Machado’s 465-foot blast June 2, 2017, and sailed over both of Oriole Park’s bullpens in left-center field, bouncing into Legends Park.
4
Add in José Altuve taking Brooks deep in the second, and the Baltimore right-hander allowed four home runs. It marked the seventh time an Orioles pitcher gave up at least four home runs in one outing, setting another dubious major league record for the pitching staff.
Brooks has a 9.41 ERA in six starts for the Orioles.
18
The six home runs allowed in the game left the Orioles only 18 home runs shy of the 2016 Cincinnati Reds’ record for more home runs allowed in a season. Álvarez finished with seven runs driven in for 51 RBIs this season, the most for any player in his first 45 career games. Ted Williams previously held the record with 47 RBIs.
6.75
Making his fourth career pitching appearance and the first since becoming the first position player to earn a save, Wilkerson was one out from having a career 1.69 ERA before the Astros struck for three runs on an Aledmys Diaz RBI single and Alvarez’s third homer. Wilkerson’s ERA rose to 6.75.
Rio Ruiz’s first career pinch-hit home run cut the Orioles’ deficit to 20-2. It also came in his first at-bat as a father; his son, Luca, was born July 27.
10
It’s nice to think help is on the way. Orioles prospects Grayson Rodriguez, the team’s 2018 first-round pick, and Dean Kremer, acquired in last summer’s Machado trade, reached double-digit strikeouts Saturday.