Orioles ride tenacious start from Corbin Burnes, 4 home runs to 8-3 series-clinching win over Phillies
This was precisely the scenario for which the Orioles acquired Corbin Burnes’ pitching services.
Father’s Day, sellout crowd at Camden Yards, series rubber match against one of the best starters on one of the best teams in baseball.
It was Burnes, looking for his 10th straight quality start, versus the Philadelphia Phillies’ Zack Wheeler, master of six pitches and one of the most reliable arms in the sport over the past seven seasons.
“It’s a great day for pitching,” Orioles pitching coach Drew French said beforehand. “Anytime Burnes takes the mound, it’s awesome. I’ve seen Zack for a lot of years. This one will be fun.”
A lot more fun for the Orioles (47-24), who rode their patented formula — six tenacious innings from Burnes, four home runs off Wheeler — to a series-clinching 8-3 win Sunday in front of an announced crowd of 44,525.
A weekend that began with a tortuous extra-innings loss and an ominous elbow injury for pitcher Kyle Bradish ended with a resounding showcase of the Orioles’ strengths against the National League’s top team.
Only a fighter jet roaring over Camden Yards as part of Maryland Fleet Week made a louder sound than Baltimore bats.
The Phillies put runners on second and third in the top of the first inning, but Burnes wiggled out of trouble, getting Philadelphia second baseman Bryson Stott to ground out to second on a 1-2 curveball.
Wheeler wasn’t so fortunate. The first hitter he faced, Gunnar Henderson, fouled off three straight 3-2 pitches before socking Wheeler’s 96.7 mph sinker 419 feet into the Orioles’ bullpen. It was Henderson’s eighth leadoff home run of the season and 22nd overall, three behind New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge for the MLB lead.
Orioles left-fielder Colton Cowser did Henderson one better in the bottom of the second, hammering a cutter from Wheeler 443 feet — tied with Ryan Mountcastle for the club’s longest home run of the year — to center to push the lead to 3-0. A celebratory eruption of mooing drowned out the disgust of thousands of Phillies fans in attendance.
Catcher Adley Rutschman joined the party next, sending Wheeler’s first pitch of the third inning 412 feet into the right-center field stands to make it 4-0.
Wheeler had allowed three home runs in a start just one other time in the past three seasons and had not allowed more than one in any previous start this year. But the Orioles weren’t done. Right fielder Anthony Santander continued his splendid weekend with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. Four pitches later, second baseman Jordan Westburg deposited a cutter from Wheeler just over the wall in right field for a three-run home run, putting an exclamation point on the nightmare afternoon for Philadelphia’s ace, who had never surrendered four long balls in one outing.
The Orioles’ eight earned runs off Wheeler were the most he had allowed since May 2018.
That resounding answer from baseball’s highest scoring offense came after the Phillies (47-24) got to Burnes in the top of the fifth with an RBI groundout from right fielder Nick Castellanos and a sharp RBI single up the middle from third baseman Alec Bohm. He limited the damage by striking out Stott — aided by a generous call from home plate umpire Mike Estabrook — with two on and two out.
Burnes allowed two runs and seven hits over six innings while striking out seven to finish with, yes, another quality start, his 12th in 15 outings this season.
The Orioles’ June crucible will continue as they go from hosting the NL’s best to a three-game series in New York against a Yankees juggernaut that has maintained its lead in the AL East in the face of Baltimore’s scorching play. The Yankees (50-23), already the best team in baseball by both record and run differential, could have ace Gerrit Cole on the mound for the first time this season after he battled nerve inflammation in his elbow.
This story will be updated.
Orioles at Yankees
Tuesday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN, TBS
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