Burns 1st to Go 8 IP - Propels Orioles Past Twins for No. 1 in Statis-Pro AL

Our 29th Statis-Pro game of the Milwaukee league based on projected 2024 stats was the first of the season to feature a pitcher going past the 7th inning.

The Baltimore Orioles' Corbin Burnes was throwing a gem through seven innings, but with that being his Max Innings Pitched on his card he dropped from a PB 2-8 to PB 2-7 to come back out for the 8th. We left him in because that still made him better than every Orioles relievers - the one weakness of the Orioles in the game - as even closer Craig Kimbrel is a PB 4-7 (average). 

The game was a scoreless duel into the 7th inning as the Yankees Gerrit Cole went 6 scoreless innings, but with two outs in the 7th Ryan Mountcastle blasted a 3-run homer, it would turn out the first of two homers, to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead.

The first batter Burnes faced after being reduced to a PB2-7 for the 8th was the Yankees newly acquired Jazz Chisholm Jr. (from Miami), who wasted no time blasting a DEEP drive. Yankee Stadium allows a homer on 11-57 on a DEEP drive, and Chisholm was almost the hero he has become since the trade as the Random Number was a 61 to indicate a diving catch against the wall that missed a homer by just two numbers.

We start with the normal end of the box score, the pitchers' lines:

Baltimore Starters	PB	IP	H	R	ER	W	K
Corbin Burnes (W)	2'-8	8	3	0	0	2	6
Yennier Cano	4'-7	1	1	1	1	0	1
NY Yankees Starters	PB	IP	H	R	ER	W	K
Gerrit Cole (L)	2'-8	7	3	3	3	2	5
Chase Hampton	4'-7	2	4	3	3	0	3

The Orioles were not done, as Cedric Mullins doubled in a run and then with two outs Adley Rutschman added an RBI single to finish the 8th inning ahead 5-0. That is key in our Statis-Pro league rules as a team that wins after leading by 5+ runs after eight innings is considered to have SWEPT the 3-game series represented by the one game - so after wrapping up the 6-1 win the Orioles claimed this sweep. 

With the sweep the Orioles improved from 7-4 to 11-4 in our standings, passing the Minnesota Twins for the top spot in our league this year. Here are the overall standings and which team would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

 

Playoff	AL Statis-Pro	W	L	AdjW%	SOS
bye	Baltimore (4)+1	11	4	0.742	0.5
bye	Minnesota (8)	12	6	0.684	1
wc	NY Mets (14)	8	4	0.667
wc	Cleveland (5)	11	7	0.632	1
wc	Tampa (18)	7	5	0.545	-1
wc	Houston (7)+1	5	7	0.481	1.5
	NY Yankees (3)+1	6	9	0.455	1.5
	Seattle (11)	6	6	0.455	-1
	St. Louis (16)	5	7	0.417
	Texas (17)	4	8	0.333
	Boston RS (15)	4	8	0.333
	Kansas City (13)	3	9	0.25

And finally here is the box score from this battle of the Eastern pod in our league. As noted above, the loss also dropped the Yankees one spot out of the playoffs behind the Astros.

 

Pos	2024 Baltimore Orioles	OPS	AB	R	H	RBI	Other
CF	Cedric Mullins	0.741	4	1	1	1	2b
ss	Gunnar Henderson	0.818	1	0	0	0	Inj
SS	Jackson Holliday	0.728	3	0	0	0
DH	Eloy Jiménez (fr CWS)	0.812	4	0	0	0
C	Adley Rutschman	0.815	2	1	1	0	2 Ws
RF	Anthony Santander	0.788	4	1	1	0
1B	Ryan Mountcastle	0.773	4	2	2	4	2 HRs
3b	Ramón Urías	0.709	4	0	0	0
2b	Jordan Westburg	0.743	4	1	2	0
CF	Cristian Pache (fr PHI)	0.659	4	0	0	0
	Orioles Totals		34	6	7	5
Pos	2024 NY Yankees	OPS	AB	R	H	RBI	Other
CF	Jazz Chisholm Jr. (fr MIA)	0.764	4	0	0	0
DH	Juan Soto	0.96	4	0	1	0	2b
RF	Aaron Judge	0.954	4	0	1	0
2b	Gleyber Torres	0.797	3	1	1	1	HR
LF	Giancarlo Stanton	0.776	3	0	0	0
1b	Ben Rice (Temp #4)	0.746	3	0	0	0
C	Austin Wells	0.709	4	0	0	0
SS	Anthony Volpe	0.71	3	0	0	0
cf	Trent Grisham	0.727	3	0	1	0
	Yankees Totals		31	1	4	1