On Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles (65-41, 1st AL East), leaders of the American League East, play the third game of a four-game set north of the border against the Toronto Blue Jays (59-48, 3rd AL East), who are third in the division. In the opening game of the series played on Monday, Baltimore defeated Toronto 4-2. The Orioles have won two straight and three of the last four, while Toronto has lost each of its last two after enjoying a 3-game winning streak. Baltimore will play without five pitchers as well as position players Aaron Hicks and Cedric Mullins. Toronto will play without five pitchers.
The Baltimore Orioles are first in the American League East but if they want to reach the playoffs and make a deep run in the postseason they need to improve their pitching. Baltimore is 15th in team ERA at 4.15 and 19th in WHIP at 1.30. Baltimore has 42 Quality Starts which is 10th best but drops to 20th in batting average allowed at .249. Kyle Gibson and Dean Kremer are the leaders in victories with 10, while Kremer is the leader in strikeouts with 111. Baltimore will have Grayson Rodriguez on the mound Wednesday. This season the right-hander is 2-2 with an ERA of 6.21 and 70 strikeouts.
At the plate, Baltimore is just 17th in team batting average with .249, but improves to 10th in both slugging percentage with .419 and runs scored with 515. Baltimore is 19th in on base percentage with .317. Anthony Santander is leadin g Baltimore in home runs with 18 and RBI with 58. Gunnar Henderson is second in home runs with 17 and Adam Frazier is second in RBI with 49. Baltimore has seven players with 40 RBI or more in a very balanced attack at plate.