On a rainy day in St. Louis, an impressive streak by the Baltimore Orioles ended.
Baltimore was swept for the first time in a two or more-game series since May 13-15, 2022, when the Orioles lost three straight games to the Detroit Tigers—a span of 106 series.
It finished as the longest in American League history.
The streak is also tied for the third-longest in MLB history with the New York Giants, 106 series from 1903-05 and, behind the St. Louis Cardinals, 125 series from 1942-44, and the Chicago Cubs, 115 from 1906-1909.
St. Louis concluded the sweep with a 5-4 win at Busch Stadium. It was also the first season sweep for the Cardinals, who improved to 23-26. St. Louis won the series opener 6-3 and took the second game 3-1 after it was suspended because of rain after a 91-minute delay Tuesday night.
“I think that we’re better than we showed these three games, and, yeah, we wanted to keep the streak alive, of course. ...We made mistakes today that we normally haven’t been making, and, like I said, we got to start putting some at-bats together to get some rallies started tomorrow.”
The Orioles fell to 29-18 with the loss and are now 2.5 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East.
The final loss to St. Louis came at another huge cost.
Starter John Means, who has battled back from several devastating injuries, could be dealing with more adversity. Means left the series finale against St. Louis with elbow discomfort after three innings, and he is scheduled for testing to determine the severity of a potential injury.
Means allowed just one hit and no runs in the outing against St. Louis, but he didn’t return to the fourth inning after 1 hour, 25-minute rain delay. His velocity was down throughout the game, which sparked concerns from pitching coach Drew French and Hyde.
Means, 31, has been a solid pitcher for Orioles when healthy. He made the American League All-Star team in 2019 and threw a no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners on May 5, 2021.
However, Means has been plagued by injuries over the past two seasons. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2022 and was supposed to return around the All-Star break last season. However, he strained a muscle in his back during non-throwing activation drills in rehab in May 2023.
He worked his way back and made six rehab encouraging starts for Triple-A Norfolk, going 1-1 with a 3.74 ERA, 22 strikeouts, and a 1.15 WHIP over 21.1 WHIP.
Means returned to the Orioles on Sept. 12 and went 1-2 with a 2.66 ERA in four starts, including a one-hit performance over 7 1/3 innings against the Cleveland Guardians on Sept. 23.
However, he was shut down for the AL Division Series against the Texas Rangers when his surgically repaired left elbow became sore. Texas swept the Orioles in four games and won its first World Series in franchise history over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“It was tough for sure,” Means said about being shut down. “I didn’t want to, but it was the smarter path. Obviously, mentally, it’s been tough over the last couple of years, but that was probably the toughest. … It was just tight, and then they looked at the MRI, and they told me to take a break on it.”
Now, his future is uncertain again.
