Taylor Ward hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning to lift the Baltimore Orioles to a 3-2 road victory against the Houston Astros on Friday night in the first game following the All-Star break for both teams.
The Orioles extended their season-best winning streak to five games. They had barely mustered any offense until Adley Rutschman led off the eighth with a double and Ward followed with his seventh homer of the season.
Baltimore collected five hits and four walks while striking out 13 times. The Orioles began the winning streak with a 3-2 victory against the Chicago Cubs on July 9, and they’ve held all their opponents to three or fewer runs in each game of the streak.
Cam Sanders (1-0), who was acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, was the winning pitcher with two-thirds of an inning of relief in his Orioles debut.
Andrew Kittredge and Tyler Wells each followed Sanders with a shutout inning. Wells posted his third save despite giving up a single and a walk in the ninth.
Astros starter Peter Lambert struck out 10 batters in six innings but his efforts weren’t enough. Lambert was charged with one run on three hits with three walks.
Steven Okert struck out two in a 1-2-3 seventh before Bryan King (2-3), who allowed the eighth-inning runs, took the loss.
Yordan Alvarez drove in a run and Jeremy Pena scored both runs for the Astros. Alvarez and Pena each had two hits and two walks.
Orioles starter Dean Kremer lasted four innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out five.
Through seven innings, Baltimore’s only three hits were singles coming from the bottom three batters in the order — Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo and Jackson Holliday.
After Kremer walked Houston leadoff batter Pena in the first inning, Alvarez doubled in the game’s first run.
The Orioles pulled even on Pete Alonso’s two-out, bases-loaded walk in the third inning.
Houston countered in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead on Isaac Paredes’ sacrifice fly.
Baltimore stranded two more runners in the fourth, but that began a stretch with 10 consecutive Orioles batters retired prior to Rutschman’s double.
The Astros wasted a bases-loaded, one-out scoring opportunity in the seventh when Sanders came out of the Baltimore bullpen to douse the threat.
