By Zachary McMahon-
The Baltimore Orioles hosted the Houston Astros on Sunday night baseball at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Orioles won two straight and wanted to win three straight to win the four-game series against Houston.
Orioles relief pitcher Nick Vespi was designated for assignment after making 11 appearances for the club in 2024, despite his lowest ERA in his career of 2.92.
Yordan Alvarez did not play for the third straight game with neck stiffness, so Mauricio Dubon played out in left field for the Astros and has started 12 straight games. Meanwhile, both Ryan Mountcastle (wrist) and Cedric Mullins (quad) did not play for the Orioles.
Hector Neris returns to the Space City after being DFA’d by the Cubs five days ago, and he pitched the sixth and seventh innings for the Astros.
Dean Kremer tossed six innings, allowing seven hits, three earned runs, two walks, and five strikeouts. Yusei Kikuchi tossed 5 ⅔ innings for the Stros, allowing three earned runs on two hits and three walks while striking out four.
In the fourth, Victor Caratini hit a RBI single for the first run of the game, and after a single to Ben Gamel, Zach Dezenzo hit a two-run double to make it 3-0.
However, Ramon Urias tied it all up with a three-run shot in the fifth inning while bringing home newcomers Eloy Jiemenez and Emmanuel Rivera.
That would be the only scoring the O’s would do in the entire game and Alex Bregman and Yainer Diaz hit back-to-back homers for Houston and the Astros won 6-3. This is the fifth time the Astros have hit back-to-back homers this season, and the second time in August as they also did it on the 11th against the Red Sox. Bregman has homered in six out of his last 10 games, and Diaz extended his hitting streak to nine games. This is the second time that the Orioles have allowed back-to-back homers this season, in which the other time was Juan Soto and Aaron Judge back-to-back homering on July 13.
Dubon crashed into the wall in left field after a running catch, and was able to walk off the field, and was pinch hit by Jake Meyers, who brought home Gamel and took over center field and Chas McCormick shifted to left field, after starting in center.
Jiemenez hit a single in the fifth, as he has hit safely in his first eight starts with the Orioles. With the home run, Urias scored his ninth run of the month of August which is the most since he scored 10 in June last season.
The O’s will be taking a travel day on Monday as they go out west to face Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers starting on Tuesday, when Cole Irvin go up against Jack Flaherty at 10:10 pm.
The Astros meanwhile will take a short trip to Philadelphia as they will face Bryce Harper and the Phillies starting on Monday at 6:40 pm with Ronel Blanco going up against Zack Wheeler on FS1.
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