Baltimore Orioles at Houston Astros

· Major League Baseball

Baltimore Orioles

49-27, 24-13 Away

Final
1 - 5

Houston Astros

37-40, 21-19 Home

Blanco throws 7 strong innings and McCormick homers twice as Astros beat Orioles 5-1

Yordan Alvarez added a two-run shot to help Houston extend its winning streak to four games.

Blanco (8-2), who threw seven hitless innings in his last start, allowed four hits and a run with three strikeouts for his third straight win.

“He keeps doing it,” manager Joe Espada said. “I'm not surprised. Whenever we need a big start to pick our team up, he shows up and does what he’s been doing all year.”

Alvarez put the Astros on top with his 16th homer, which came off Corbin Burnes (8-3) in the third, and McCormick made it 4-1 in the fifth. McCormick got his fifth career multihomer game when he connected again in the eighth.

The game was a relief for McCormick, who is hitting .225 this season and had just one homer entering Saturday's game.

“I needed a game like today,” he said. “It felt good. I’ve just been working hard and obviously I know I’ve been struggling, but I hope I can keep this momentum going forward.”

Burnes allowed five hits, including a season-high two homers and a season-most four runs in seven innings to snap his career-best streak of 10 consecutive quality starts. He was 5-0 in seven starts since a loss at Washington on May 7.

“I think he just wants a couple of pitches back, but besides that he threw the ball great,” manager Brandon Hyde said.

Jordan Westburg homered in the second for the Orioles, who set a franchise record with 21 straight games with a home run to surpass the 1998 squad's 20-game streak.

Baltimore had troubled stringing hits together Saturday after scoring 28 runs combined in the last two games. The top four batters in their order combined to go 1 for 13 against Blanco and Houston's bullpen.

“He’s got a really good changeup and a sneaky fastball that he commands really well,” Hyde said. “We just had a tough time getting anything going offensively after the first couple of hitters. We did hit some balls hard, we just didn’t find many holes today.”

Ryan Pressly threw a scoreless eighth before Josh Hader struck out two in a perfect ninth to end it.

Westburg connected off Blanco with one out in the second to put the Orioles up 1-0.

Yainer Diaz opened Houston’s second with a triple on a line drive to right field. The Astros tied it when he scored on a sacrifice fly by Mauricio Dubón with one out.

McCormick singled with no outs in the third and the shot to center field by Alvarez came with two outs to put Houston on top 3-1.

McCormick’s home run to the seats in left field extended the lead to 4-1 with one out in the fifth.

Cedric Mullins tripled off the wall in center with one out in the seventh. Colton Cowser hit a sharp line drive, but was robbed of a hit when shortstop Jeremy Peña made a leaping catch for the second out. Blanco then retired Ramón Urías to end the inning and leave Mullins stranded.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Astros: RHP Jake Bloss, who made his major league debut Friday night, was placed on the injured list with right shoulder discomfort.

ROSTER MOVES

Astros: RHP Nick Hernandez was optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land on Friday night. ... LHP Bryan King was selected to the MLB roster and RHP Luis Contreras was recalled from Sugar Land on Saturday. … RHP Alex Speas was designated for assignment.

Houston LHP Framber Valdez (5-5, 3.91 ERA) opposes RHP Albert Suárez (3-1, 2.05) in the series finale Sunday.

How can I watch Baltimore Orioles vs. Houston Astros?

TV Channel: Orioles at Astros 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
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Matchup Prediction

Astros: 44.7%

Orioles: 55.3%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Westburg struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Santander struck out looking.
	9th Inning	Mountcastle flied out to right.
	9th Inning	Hader relieved Pressly
	8th Inning	Alvarez grounded out to second.
	8th Inning	Bregman grounded out to third.

Statistics

BAL		HOU
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
8	Ground Balls	9
7	Strikeouts	5
1	Runs Batted In	5
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
4	Hits	6
0	Stolen Bases	1
3	Walks	0
0	Catcher Interference	0
1	Runs	5
0	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	1
30	At Bats	29
1	Home Runs	3
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
7	Runners Left On Base	4
1	Triples	1
0	Game Winning RBIs	1
0	Intentional Walks	0
0	Doubles	1
15	Fly Balls	16
1	Caught Stealing	0
124	Pitches	108
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
1	Is Qualified In Steals	1
9	Total Bases	18
33	Plate Appearances	30
162.0	Projected Home Runs	486.0
2	Extra Base Hits	5
1.4	Runs Created	4.5
.133	Batting Average	.207
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.300	Slugging Percentage	.621
.233	Secondary Average	.448
.212	On Base Percentage	.200
.512	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.821
0.5	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.6
1.4	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	5.1
13.5	Batter Rating	40.5
30.0	At Bats Per Home Run	9.7
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.76	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.60
.167	Isolated Power	.414
0.43	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.00
.091	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.000
.100	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.241
2.0	Runs Produced	10.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.4	Patience Ratio	0.6
0.1	Balls In Play Average	0.1
66.3	MLB Rating	86.5
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0