Christian Encarnacion-Strand has been a run-production maven since being recalled from AAA, and while he is better than Coby Mayo at third base, defense is hardly his forte.

But twice on Saturday night the lumbering slugger had to charge on ground balls and throw across in a key spot, especially in the sixth inning with two in and the bases loaded and two outs, and he gunned Max Muncy to end the inning (and threw out speedster Henry Bolte earlier in the game). Later, he turned a massive double play in the eighth.

Starter Shane Baz was stellar for five innings but unraveling in the sixth, and the defense – which leads the majors in unearned runs and has been especially suspect for Baz – came up with repeated big plays Saturday. Baltimore (67-69) beat the Athletics, 5-3, at Sutter Health Field in Sacramento, capping another series win, and desperately needing to finally finish a sweep over a terrible opponent Sunday.

The Orioles had lost seven straight of Baz’s starts, despite him pitching well, and improved to 7-20 in those outings this season. Gunnar Henderson added a fine game at short to help the cause the A's were intent on making enough mistakes for both teams.

“I was happy we were able to put some runs up there for him,” outfielder Colton Cowser said of Baz on the MASN postgame show.

Just Enough Offense

The Orioles lineup remains a concern with the lack of run support particularly acute for Baz. The bottom of the order delivered Saturday – Pete Alonso’s calf might be more of an issue with three more strikeouts here – and an outfield that offered scant production the last two seasons carried the load.

Cowser has been better lately amid a lot season for him, and hit a solo homer and Leody Taveras drove in three runs with a single and two-run double (raise your hand if you thought Taveras had a chance to drive in 60 runs this season; he has 52 already).

"It barely got out, but they all count," Cowser said.

They staked the O’s to a 4-0 lead, and then it got dicey.

Alex Hoppe, excellent since coming over from Seattle in the Taylor Ward trade, got the ground ball to close out the sixth inning, bailing out Baz, and the Orioles would live dangerously for the rest of the night.

The A’s loaded the bases again in the seventh, with one out, and this time Yennier Cano came in from the pen and struck out Zack Gelof and Lawrence Butler. It happened again in the eighth when Cam Sanders walked consecutive batters, Carlos Cortes pushed a ball between first and second to bring a run in, and Encarnacion-Strand started a double-play on a chopper to end the inning with the Birds still up.

The Orioles went up 5-3 in the ninth in Little League fashion. Cowser scorched a to second base – it was scored an error, oddly – and ended up on first on a terrible throw from the outfield that skipped into the dugout. Cowser promptly scored on a wild pitch. Cowser didn't seem too worried about the error decision given the outcome of that sequence, and the game.

"I was able to make something happen and score another run there," he noted.

Andrew Kittredge handled the ninth for the second straight night, and sure enough two more A's reached base before Encarnacion-Strand made another nice play to end the game. The Orioles are now within a game of the final Wild Card spot and get to face the bottom-dwelling Rockies in Colorado to end this road trip after moving on Sacramento.

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