After quite a bit of idle time this week, the Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles are in store for a busy day of baseball when they meet for Thursday’s doubleheader at Camden Yards.
Wednesday night’s game was postponed because of weather concerns. So that means that each team has played just one game since Sunday afternoon.
That game was won by Baltimore with Tuesday night’s 5-3 decision.
The Astros, who are 3-8 in their last 11 games, would like to see outfielder Brice Matthews build off that game when he produced three hits, including a home run.
“I feel like I could do that each and every night, but baseball, it’s not going to go your way each and every night,” Matthews said.
With an array of injuries impacting the Astros, manager Joe Espada said Matthews could become a spark.
“I keep saying, when he finds barrel to ball, he’s exciting to watch,” Espada said. “He’s a very explosive player. He can change outcomes of the game when he learns to be more consistent making contact.”
The Astros also hope that third baseman Isaac Paredes can get rolling. Even though he went 0-for-4 on Tuesday, he had hits in six of seven games prior to that.
“Sometimes it takes a little bit of time,” Espada said. “He’s starting to heat up, and he knows he can do damage and he’s doing some damage.”
Baltimore has had catcher Adley Rutschman with a hot bat. He has racked up multiple hits in three of five games with 10 runs batted in since returning from the injury list.
“With Adley, it’s just taking his hits,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “Staying on the off-speed, driving it the other way. It just shows his adjustability in the box.”
The Orioles will send out right-handers Chris Bassitt (1-2, 6.75 ERA) and Brandon Young (2-0, 2.53) for the starting assignments.
For Young, it will mark his third big-league appearance of the season. He pitched twice last year against Houston with mixed results. He took a perfect game into the eighth and threw eight shutout innings in mid-August. Less than a week later, he was tagged for seven runs in 5 1/3 innings.
The Astros are bound to challenge Baltimore’s pitchers, who had the right mix in the series opener.
“They’re a deep-lineup team and battle tested,” Albernaz said. “It was great to see our (pitchers) step up to the challenge.”
Houston has right-handers Peter Lambert (1-1, 3.27) and Lance McCullers Jr. (1-2, 6.75) slated to be on the mound.
The Astros have gone 0-4 in McCullers’ first four April starts, though he only had decisions in the last two outings when he lasted five innings in both cases. He has bemoaned poor beginnings to recent games as getting him off track.
Espada said some adjustments could bolster McCullers.
“I think for Lance, it’s being ahead,” Espada said. “Once he’s ahead, he can expand and he can set the tone. But if you’re behind in the count, it can be really hard to execute and get people out.”
McCullers has faced the Orioles eight times, with six starts, in his career. He’s 3-0 with a 3.34 ERA covering 35 innings in those matchups.
–Field Level Media
