Wednesday’s 8-1 win over the Detroit Tigers was significant on multiple levels. First, it allowed the Baltimore Orioles to avoid a season sweep at the hands of the Tigers and secondly, it allowed the team to gain a game in the Wild Card race as all three current Wild Card teams lost on Wednesday.
As significant as those two things are, the most significant aspect of Wednesday’s complete game victory by the “father” of the Baltimore pitching staff, Jordan Lyles (11-11). The last Baltimore complete game was the John Means no-hitter on 5/5/2021. It also was the Orioles first at OPACY since Dylan Bundy threw a complete game on 8/29/2017. Lyles last complete game was almost 10 years ago when he tossed one on 9/30/2012 for the Houston Astros.
To put this into perspective and to illustrate just how much pitching has changed over the years, Jim Palmer threw 211 complete games in his Hall of Fame career.
Lyles threw 94 pitches (72 strikes) over the 9.0 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 6. The lone run was a Kerry Carpenter homerun in the 7th inning; Carpenter went 2 for 3 off Lyles.
Kyle Stowers led the offense by going 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI including his 2nd homerun of the season in the 6th inning.
Gunnar Henderson went 2 for 5 with 1 RBI.
Adley Rutschman went 1 for 5 with a run scored and 2 RBI.
Robinson Chirinos, Lyles battery-mate, went 1 for 4 with 1 RBI.
Terrin Vavra went 1 for 2 with 1 run scored and 2 walks.
2022 Record: 77-71, 4.0 GB in the Wild Card race.
Next Game: 9/22 vs. Houston @ 7:05 pm