Twenty, then twenty-one
Coby Mayo had never reached 20 home runs in a major league season. He got there overnight at Camden Yards, then added another before the night was out. Baltimore beat Cleveland 6-4 and a six-game losing streak was finished.
The Orioles needed exactly that. They had scored more than one run only once in their previous four games, and the Red Sox shut them out twice while sweeping the series before this one. At 70-75 they sit three games behind the Guardians in the American League wild-card race, which is a long way back in September without being a closed door.
Mayo carried an 11-game hitting streak into the game. “You don’t go into the year chasing numbers, but I think when the year plays out, you kind of see what’s going on,” he said of reaching the 20-homer mark for the first time. Manager Craig Albernaz pointed instead to the way his young infielder handled a rough first half. Pete Alonso drew a bases-loaded walk for his 95th RBI, chasing a fourth 100-RBI season inside five years.
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A bullpen that keeps changing hands
Josh Walker recorded the final out, which made him the 11th Baltimore pitcher to collect a save this season. That is a franchise record, and not the flattering kind. Andrew Kittredge leads the group with nine, but he blew a lead on Wednesday and then handed back three runs in the ninth on Monday before Walker cleaned up behind him.
Cleveland burned five pitchers getting through eight innings, so Tanner Bibee is under real pressure to go deep on Tuesday. The right-hander is 5-15 with a 4.06 ERA and had reached the sixth inning in nine straight starts before lasting barely four against Toronto on Thursday, when he walked five and allowed five runs. His career record now sits at 39-38 after three consecutive seasons of double-digit wins. He did blank Baltimore for six innings on April 17.
What Tuesday decides
Brandon Young takes the ball for the Orioles at 9-3 with a 3.42 ERA, chasing his 10th win a day after Trevor Rogers got his. Home runs have followed Young around lately, seven of them across his last four starts, and his only previous look at Cleveland ended in a loss in July 2025.
The Guardians are 73-72, three games behind the White Sox in the AL Central and clinging to the last wild card by a single game over Toronto. “The rest of the year feels like the postseason,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “That’s how it works in September.”
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