Surging Orioles getting closer to Mansolino's goal with sweep of Angels 

BALTIMORE -- When Tony Mansolino became the Orioles’ interim manager on May 17, the club had already played itself into a 15-28 hole. Baltimore then lost six of its first seven games with the 42-year-old at the helm, falling to 18 games below .500 (16-34) on May 24.

Mansolino still wasn’t writing off his O’s. Instead, he laid out a potential road map.

“This is actually a team that does have a chance to get back to 10 games under, then maybe back to .500 and go from there,” Mansolino said during his first managerial week.

All of a sudden, the surging O’s have crossed off that first checkmark and have their eyes on more.

The Orioles completed a three-game sweep of the Angels with an 11-2 win on Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards, improving to 30-40. It’s the first time they’ve been only 10 games below .500 since they were 15-25 on May 14 -- three days before manager Brandon Hyde’s dismissal.

Since May 30, Baltimore is 11-4 -- the best record of any MLB team during that span. The O’s have recorded sweeps of the White Sox (May 30-June 1), Mariners (June 3-5) and Halos.

It may be a bit too early to scoreboard watch … but the Orioles will end Sunday only six games out of the third American League Wild Card spot.

“We’re kind of in it in a weird way. There’s some belief in there,” Mansolino said. “It’s like, 'Now, if we can get to five under.' If you get to five under, then all of a sudden, eyes are open and you can kind of see it a little bit."

The latest victory again featured the better brand of baseball Baltimore has played of late.

Ramón Urías hit a two-run home run in the first inning, before Ramón Laureano gave the Orioles the lead for good with a tiebreaking RBI single in the fourth. They tacked on two more runs in the sixth, as Gary Sánchez scored on an error and Coby Mayo hit an RBI double.

Sánchez then broke the game open with a grand slam in the seventh. It was the 32-year-old’s second home run as an Oriole, the first coming Saturday in his return from a near-seven-week stint on the injured list due to a right wrist ailment. Jordan Westburg added a two-run homer in the eighth, his third home run since coming back from a left hamstring strain on Tuesday.

“There’s a lot more energy in the dugout, there’s a lot more energy on the field,” Westburg said. “I feel like guys are kind of feeding off of each other and we’re seeing a lot more smiles, I think just a lot more aggressive baseball, it looks like. Better at-bats, better on the bases, the pitching’s been solid, as it has been even before I got back. But I do notice a difference since coming off the IL.”

It was the third time this season Baltimore tallied double-digit runs, following its 12-2 victory on Opening Day in Toronto and a 10-1 win over Detroit on Wednesday.

The O’s knocked 12 hits, and they did so without four key pieces of their lineup. Jackson Holliday and Adley Rutschman had scheduled days off. Colton Cowser missed his third straight game after colliding hard with the center-field wall on Thursday. Ryan O’Hearn was out a second straight day due to left ankle soreness sustained Friday.

“It just shows you the depth that we have and what the offense is capable of doing even without some of our biggest boppers,” Westburg said. “I think going into today, on the outside, if somebody’s looking at that lineup, you probably don’t know what to expect. But in here, I think there’s a trust and a knowledge of how talented and fierce everybody is and how much we like to compete.”

Cade Povich tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings following opener Scott Blewett (two runs allowed in 2 2/3 innings), while Seranthony Domínguez, Andrew Kittredge and Yennier Cano combined to blank the Angels over the final 2 2/3 frames.

Three MLB teams have started 30-40 in a non-shortened season and gone on to reach the postseason -- the 2013 Dodgers, the 1974 Pirates and the 1914 Boston Braves. The playoff field is now larger than it was in any of those years, with three division winners and three Wild Cards making it from each league.

Could the 2025 Orioles join the exclusive club? It would be quite a turnaround, and there’s still a lot of work to do. But the club’s confidence is clearly on the rise.

“This is the baseball I think we’ve been wanting to play from day one,” Povich said. “It obviously didn’t go that way, but we’re finding out how to turn it around, get on the right track and just see how far we can get.”