ANAHEIM, CALIF. — Despite enjoying a team-best stretch in recent weeks, the Orioles have yet to sweep a series in 2019. Sunday’s finale of a four-game set with the Los Angeles Angels didn’t change that.
After winning the series’ first three games, the Orioles fell, 5-4, narrowly unable to complete what would’ve been their first sweep since August 2018 and first four-game sweep on the road since August 2011. Pitching for a third time in the four games, Mychal Givens allowed a walk-off home run to Matt Thaiss in the bottom of the ninth.
Givens gave up runs in each of his outings in the series. The Orioles recovered from the tying home run he allowed Thursday to win in 16 innings, while Givens left the bases loaded in the ninth after surrendering a run in Saturday’s victory. Givens, a candidate to be traded by Wednesday’s trade deadline, threw 30 pitches in that outing but told manager Brandon Hyde he felt healthy enough to pitch Sunday.
"It was a little sore, but trying to get through it and help us win a ballgame,” Givens said. “I’m just trying to do my job. That’s what I’m here to do each day and try to be available as much as I can, try to help keep us in the ballgame.”
The Orioles still have not won four straight since their season-opening road trip, though they have won seven of their past 11 games and 13 of their past 25. The stretch of success precedes Wednesday’s deadline, during which many of the players who got them to the precipice of the sweep could be dealt.
Jonathan Villar followed a hitless series in Arizona with four straight multi-hit games in Anaheim. Sunday’s featured three hits, with the first two each scoring runs as the Orioles rallied from an early 2-0 deficit, created when Thaiss hit a home run off Dylan Bundy in the bottom of the second. Thaiss has seven hits in 37 major league at-bats, with three of those hits being home runs against the Orioles.
In the third, Villar scored Stevie Wilkerson, the hero of Thursday’s 16-inning game after becoming the major leagues’ first position player to earn a save, with a double in the third. In the fifth, Pedro Severino, who recorded four-hit games in his previous two starts, walked for a second time, recording only his second two-walk game of 2019. Hanser Alberto reached on an error by pitcher Félix Peña, whose only hit allowed to that point was Villar’s double.
With two outs and runners on the corners, Villar singled the other way to tie the game, taking second on the play. Trey Mancini, who has homered seven times in his past 11 games, followed with a two-run single to give the Orioles their first lead of the day. But the Orioles failed to score another run, with Villar’s seventh-inning single being their last hit.
Villar said the team’s hitting coaches suggested he make a mechanical adjustment to start moving his hands earlier after noting on video he was late while going hitless in 15 at-bats against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The change also helped him stay back on breaking balls, he said. Villar finished the series with the Angels 10-for-18 with five steals and two homers, including the game-winner in Thursday’s 16th inning.
“He’s almost like taking over the game with his legs and his bat,” Hyde said. "He can do a lot of things offensively that help you win. He did a bunch this series.”
The Angels tied the game with another home run off Bundy, who returned to the mound for the sixth having thrown 90 pitches. After Kole Calhoun singled, Albert Pujols sent Bundy’s high, 3-0 fastball out to left for a game-tying home run.
“You know you make a good pitch, it could be a double play,” Bundy said. "Bad pitch, and it’s a two-run homer. Pretty simple.”
Bundy has a 4.91 ERA in two starts since coming off the injured list for right knee tendinitis, but like Villar, Givens and others, Bundy could find himself on another team by the end of the day Wednesday.
“We don’t really talk it about too much,” Bundy said. "We know there are guys that people want, so that’s part of the business of the game. You’ve just got to go out there and play for the team you’re on, and right now, we’re all on this team. So play hard for this team and other than that, just play the game hard.”
After Shawn Armstrong entered and allowed a single, he, Paul Fry and Givens combined to retire 10 straight before Thaiss’ homer left the Orioles a game shy of the sweep.
“We won three out of four," Hyde said. "We feel good about that. It doesn’t feel good to lose the fourth one like that, but you win a series on the road, and it’s positive.”