BALTIMORE — Adley Rutschman has nonetheless by no means been swept within the common season as a giant leaguer.
With that streak on the verge of ending, the Baltimore catcher took issues into his personal arms Wednesday, hitting a two-run homer within the backside of the ninth to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2. The Orioles have now gone 105 consecutive regular-season sequence of not less than two choices (no ties) with out being swept. Solely two groups have had longer runs.
“Our guys are actually resilient, they’ve been all yr,” Rutschman mentioned. “At all times the following man up. We by no means assume we’re out of it.”
Baltimore’s streak misplaced a few of its luster when the Orioles had been in reality swept in final yr’s AL Division Sequence by Texas, however the regular-season run remains to be fascinating. Of the 105 sequence, 76 have been three video games, 19 have been 4, 9 have been two, and there was one five-gamer. Baltimore’s total report throughout the span is 197-132.
Even for a staff with a profitable share of .599, the probabilities of going via all these sequence with out being swept are round 0.08%.
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There are different stats that additionally mirror the staff’s potential to keep away from prolonged slumps. The Orioles have not misplaced any of their final 17 sequence in opposition to the AL East, going 12-0-5. They’re additionally considered one of three groups within the majors, together with Philadelphia and the Chicago Cubs, that have not had a three-game dropping streak this yr.
The newest time Baltimore was swept was Could 13-15, 2022, at Detroit. So the streak has now hit two years. Rutschman made his huge league debut Could 21, 2022, and the Orioles began enjoying lots higher virtually instantly.
The streak is tied for third in main league historical past, in response to info from the Elias Sports activities Bureau through the staff. The 1942-44 St. Louis Cardinals went 124 sequence with out being swept, and the 1906-09 Chicago Cubs went 115. The 1903-05 New York Giants additionally had a 105-series run.
On 14 events, the Orioles have wanted a win in a sequence finale to keep away from a sweep. They’ve pulled it off every time, together with a 12-inning win at Washington earlier this month that prevented a two-game sweep, after which Wednesday’s sport in opposition to the Blue Jays, when Baltimore did not rating in any respect between Jordan Westburg’s leadoff homer within the first inning and Rutschman’s walk-off shot.
“You usually do not win video games like that while you go away that many guys on base and have that many scoring alternatives,” supervisor Brandon Hyde mentioned. “However we did due to our pitching right this moment.”
The Orioles had baserunners in eight of the 9 innings. That they had males on second and third with no person out within the seventh and first and third with one out within the eighth. Each instances they failed to attain.
None of that mattered when Rutschman delivered his second profession walk-off homer.
“We do not make it straightforward on ourselves typically,” Hyde mentioned. “We might like to begin cashing in a few of these runs and getting some leads and never play so a lot of some of these video games.”