O'Hearn has 'at-bat of the year' to ignite 3-HR rally
Blanked through 7 innings, O's break out for 5-run 8th inning to win series
CHICAGO -- The Orioles¡¯ offense could not get anything going against Erick Fedde and the White Sox for seven innings on Saturday afternoon. But it didn¡¯t take much longer for Baltimore's deep lineup to remind everyone how lethal it is.
The Orioles hit three homers in a five-run eighth inning, rallying for a 5-3 win at Guaranteed Rate Field. The blasts from Ryan O'Hearn, Anthony Santander and Jordan Westburg came in a five-batter sequence.
¡°That was a fun inning,¡± manager Brandon Hyde said. ¡°That game -- offensively, for us, sucked for seven [innings]. We didn't do anything offensively.¡±
That¡¯s a credit to Fedde, who¡¯s having a strong season (2.80 ERA, 11 starts) and has been dominant at home (0.95 ERA, six starts). The Orioles tallied just three hits -- all singles -- and three walks off him in his 6 1/3 innings pitched.
Reliever Jordan Leasure took over in the seventh, and in the eighth issued a one-out walk to Adley Rutschman. That set the table for O¡¯Hearn.
¡°O'Hearn, for me, set the tone there [that inning],¡± Hyde said. ¡°That might be the at-bat of the year.¡±
O¡¯Hearn worked a 2-0 count against Leasure, taking a curveball inside and a four-seam fastball off the outer half of the plate. He fouled off the next five pitches, two of which, an 87 mph slider and a 95 mph four-seamer, were around eye level.
Those are normally pitches O¡¯Hearn doesn¡¯t want to be swinging at. But in that spot, it¡¯s about staying alive to battle for another pitch.
¡°I tell myself not to be in swing mode. It¡¯s like, I know I'm swinging at balls,¡± O¡¯Hearn said. ¡°But I'm also just up there competing and trying to put the ball in play with two strikes.
¡°When you swing at a ball at your head and catch up to it, it also gives you a little bit of like, ¡®Oh, OK, I¡¯ve got more time than I think.¡¯ And then you get a medium-speed pitch in the middle, it puts you in a good position to do damage.¡±
Leasure hung a slider on the eighth pitch of the sequence, and O¡¯Hearn hit it a Statcast-projected 384 feet to right field for a two-run homer, cutting Baltimore¡¯s deficit to 3-2.
¡°The amount of foul balls -- and [him] hanging in there and hitting a two-run homer really gave us a spark,¡± Hyde said. ¡°Because we had nothing going.¡±
The White Sox called on Michael Kopech for a potential five-out save after O¡¯Hearn¡¯s homer, but the O¡¯s were all over Chicago¡¯s closer. Ryan Mountcastle greeted him with a single down the right-field line, and Santander followed by crushing a go-ahead two-run blast to right-center field. Two batters later, Jordan Westburg provided insurance with a solo blast to right.
¡°Stuff-wise, it felt like it was coming out fine,¡± Kopech said. ¡°I didn¡¯t execute when I needed to, paid the price.¡±
The trio of long balls marked the Orioles¡¯ first three-homer inning since June 1, 2022, against the Mariners. Mountcastle, Ram¨®n Ur¨ªas and Trey Mancini pulled the feat against Sergio Romo in the sixth inning that day.
The sequence backed a good outing by Albert Su¨¢rez, who stretched out to 80 pitches in his first start since April 28 and threw four scoreless innings.
¡°Just a total pro on the mound,¡± Hyde said. ¡°Incredible outing by him.¡±
Later, Dillon Tate threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out four. Hyde said Tate, who was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk on Friday, ¡°won us the game on the mound.¡±
The Orioles¡¯ offense had a frustrating series in St. Louis this week, scoring just eight runs in their three-game sweep to the Cardinals. But they entered Saturday averaging 4.96 runs per game, ranked fifth in the Majors.
This series is much more a reflection of what everyone is accustomed to seeing, and Saturday a reminder of how good Baltimore¡¯s lineup is.
¡°We know we have a good offense and what we're capable of,¡± O¡¯Hearn said. ¡°We also know that we can put up runs fast. Get a couple guys on base, a couple homers, like how it happened today. I think there were some hard-hit balls. Fedde pitched well and got us out of our plan a little bit and got us to swing at some pitches outside the zone.
¡°To finally break through like that and get that come-from-behind win, it just gives you all the confidence in the world knowing how good our offense is and how fast we can put up runs.¡±