A pair of American League teams battling for potential playoff berths kick off the month of September on the shores of Lake Erie. The Baltimore Orioles are on the road as they play the finale of a three-game series with the Cleveland Guardians Thursday evening. In the opening game of the series Tuesday night, it was the Guardians rolling to a 5-1 triumph to ensure no worse than a shot at a series win. This article was published prior to the conclusion of the middle game of the series at Progressive Field Wednesday night. Which team finds a way to come up with the victory here on getaway day?
Baltimore suffered their second straight loss after winning five of six as they were knocked off in the opening game of the series Tuesday night. The Orioles entered Wednesday fourth in the AL East, 11 games behind the Yankees for the division lead. In the AL wild card picture, the team was three games behind the Blue Jays for the final wild card spot. On Tuesday night, Baltimore finished with one solitary hit, that being a Ramon Urias single in the second inning: he scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Mountcastle. The lack of offense doomed Spenser Watkins (4-5), who took the loss as he allowed five runs on six hits with no walks and three strikeouts over 4.2 innings of work.
Kyle Bradish is on the mound for the Orioles as he makes his 17th start of the season in this contest. He comes in 2-5 with a 5.63 ERA, a 1.538 WHIP, 29 walks and 79 strikeouts over 80 innings of work this year. Bradi sh earned the win in his last start, which came Friday on the road against the Astros. He threw eight scoreless innings, allowing two hits with two walks and six strikeouts in a 2-0 Orioles victory. In his last three starts, Bradish is 1-1 with a 2.95 ERA, a 1.25 WHIP, six walks and 17 strikeouts over 18.1 innings of work. This marks his first career start against the Guardians in this, his 17th career major league start. As a result, Bradish pitches at Progressive Field for the first time in his career in this contest.