Baltimore Orioles look to avoid ALDS elimination in Texas: 'I feel good about our team'

BALTIMORE - The Baltimore Orioles have their backs against the wall facing elimination in the best-of-five American League Divisional Series.

With losses to the Texas Rangers in the first two games of the series in Baltimore, the Orioles (0-2) head to Texas for Tuesday's game three.

The O's need to win the next three games to advance in the postseason.

They announced their batting order: 1. Gunnar Henderson, SS; 2. Adley Rutschman, C; 3. Anthony Santander, RF; 4. Ryan Mountcastle, 1B; 5. Ryan O'Hearn, DH; 6. Austin Hays, LF; 7. Cedric Mullins, CF; 8. Jordan Westburg, 3B; 9. Adam Frazier, 2B.

"Everybody is very aware of the situation we are in right now," Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. "I think it is going to be a positive message but we've been really consistent all year. We've had two bad games before, so it's nothing new, except that the season is on the line. We believe in our guys."

The mindset for the Orioles is to take it one game at a time and extend the series to game four on Wednesday. 

The Birds are one of the best teams on the road. They are tied in baseball with a 52-29 record away from Camden Yards during the regular season.

Now, they are tasked with winning two in a row in Texas and bringing the series back to Baltimore for a fifth game.

"We've won three games in a row quite a bit this year," Hyde said. "I feel like we've played really well on the road this year. We've kind of had our backs against the wall before where I feel like we needed some wins. We are in that situation right now, unfortunately, but I feel good about our club."

The Orioles haven't been swept in a series since May 16-18, 2022, which was before young stars like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson were promoted to the big leagues.

However, only 10 teams have rallied to win a Division

"Just go out there and play our game," Henderson said. "It's been working for us all year, and try not to not anything more, just go out and play Baltimore baseball. If we do that, then I think it will work out for us."

The Orioles will hand the ball on Tuesday to 27-year-old starting pitcher Dean Kremer, who is hoping to keep the season season alive.

Kremer has a 13-5 record with a 4.12 ERA this season in 32 games.

In his last appearance, he pitched 5.1 shutout innings, allowing just two hits and striking out eight, on Sept. 28 against the Boston Red Sox.

The Rangers will start righty Nathan Eovaldi, who had a 12-5 record with a 3.63 ERA in the regular season. He pitched 6.2 shutout innings in the Rangers win over Tampa Bay in the wild-card round.

"I'm going to try and treat it like any other start. Hopefully, it goes that way," Kremer said.

The Orioles lost the opener to Texas, 3-2, on Saturday in their first home playoff game since the 2014 ALCS. They lost Sunday's second game, 11-8, but roared back after falling behind 9-2 through three innings.

Henderson believes Sunday's surge gave the Orioles some confidence heading into this elimination game.

"Being down seven, we kept coming back, and that gave us some confidence and proved to ourselves we can compete with anyone no matter how many runs they put up," Henderson said. "We are looking forward to continuing that."

The Orioles offense is hoping to heat up in Texas, with Rutschman, Henderson, Anthony Santander, Austin Hays, Aaron Hicks and Jorge Mateo continuing to get on base.

However, they are hoping to get production out of veteran centerfielder Cedric Mullins, who is 0-for-8 in the series with three strikeouts.

"He's done a lot for us for a while now. His center field defense is hard to ignore," Hyde said. "He's definitely caught in between offensively right now and he has been for a few weeks. But nobody is working harder in the cage. It's like he needs one to fall to kind of get him kick-started a little bit. You kind of see him hitting frustrated and he wants to contribute so badly offensively. You don't want to give up on it, and he plays Gold Glove center defense, and that's hard to take out of the lineup."

As for the pitching staff, Hyde says that in this elimination game, everything goes.

"It will be all hands on deck," Hyde said. "It's definitely a must-win for us. Our backs are against the wall. We didn't play our best baseball the first two games, so hopefully we will play better."

The Rangers, with one of the best lineups in baseball, is led by Corey Seager, Adolis Garcis, Marcus Semien, Evan Carter, Jonah Heim, Josh Jung and Leody Tavares.

"They are a slightly aggressive team and they put the ball in play," Kremer said. "They are patient and have the second-best offense this year. So, just trying to keep them at bay and keep the crowd at bay, and that should be the recipe for a win."