When the Baltimore Orioles need it most, they got a win on Saturday night and the bullpen was only called upon to get five outs. They maintained their slim 1.5 game lead (with 7 games remaining to play) over the Tampa Bay Rays with a 2-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians and extended their streak of series of 2+ games without being swept to 89.
The win started and for all intents and purposes ended with John Means (1-1) who threw 96 pitches (65 strikes) over 7.1 innings in his third game back from Tommy John surgery. He allowed 1 run on 1 hit, a Andres Gimenez homerun in the seventh inning, walked 1, struck out 4 and hit a batter.
Yennier Cano struck out 1 while finishing out the eighth inning (0.2 IP) and Cionel Perez (1.0 IP) sandwiched a line out between two groundouts in the ninth to earn his 3rd save.
Anthony Santander went 3 for 5 with a double and 2 RBI, knocking in Gunnar Henderson (1 for4, 1 R, 1 BB) in the first and James McCann (2 for 4, 1 R) in the sixth.
Tony turned on the sprinklers! pic.twitter.com/RKDwQlIUwr
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 23, 2023
Adley Rutschman went 2 for 4 with a walk.
Ramon Urias went 1 for 4.
2023 Record: 96-59 Magic Number: 5
Next Game: Sun. 9/24 @ 1:40 pm vs. Guardians in Cleveland
Kyle Gibson vs. Triston McKenzie