Comparing Orioles' Aprils, Chris Davis heating up and take on home games in St. Petersburg

The Orioles ended April of last year with a 12-12 record, and they were 2 1/2 games out of first place. They have ended April 2015 at 10-10, and are two games out of first place.

So far, they have hit better than last April but the pitching stats have been behind the April 2014 numbers.

April 2014 batting: .265 avg., .319 OBP, .393 slugging, .712 OPS, 17 homers, 4.5 runs/game

April 2015 batting: .286 avg., .345 OBP, .482 slugging, .827 OPS, 29 homers, 5.6 runs/game

The Orioles lead the majors in runs scored per game. Going into last night's games, three of the top four in runs per game were from the American League East, with Toronto and Kansas City at 5.3 runs per game and Boston at 5.1. New York is not far behind at 4.95.

The Orioles rank third in the majors in batting average, tied for third in OBP, second in slugging and OPS and tied for second in home runs. The Orioles have scored five runs or more five straight games and 14 times on the year, and they've scored six runs or more 10 times so far.

April 2014 pitching: 4.49 team ERA, a 4.74 rotation ERA

April 2015 pitching: 4.78 team ERA, a 5.06 rotation ERA

So far the teams in the American League East have been beating up on each other, and no team has gotten off to a red-hot start to open any separation from the rest of the division.

AL East records within the division only:
* Tampa Bay is 10-9
* New York is 8-7
* Boston is 8-8
* Baltimore and Toronto are 9-10

Don't look now, but the much-criticized Chris Davis has gotten hot. It is just a four-game sample, but a strong one. Davis is 6-for-15 with three homers, six runs and nine RBIs in that stretch. His last three games have produced three multi-RBI games with him driving in two, three and three runs.

Davis has struck out a lot, but his K rate is down a bit in recent games. He fanned 15 times over the first eight games and has struck out 14 times his last 11 games.

His season stats now look quite solid: Over 19 games, he is batting .268 with five homers, 16 RBIs, a .549 slugging percentage and a .883 OPS.

Did Davis' critics rush to judgement too fast?

MiLB president comes to Bowie: Minor League Baseball President Pat O'Conner is scheduled to attend the Double-A Bowie Baysox game tonight at 6:35 p.m., to present Baysox third baseman Jason Esposito with the MiLB Rawlings Gold Glove Award he received as a member of the 2014 Single-A Frederick Keys.

Keys win, but pitcher hurt: The Single-A Frederick Keys scored three runs in the top of the ninth last night to beat Salem 9-8 to end April at five games over .500 for the first time since 2008. That win leaves the Keys with a 13-8 record, their best at the end of the first month since the 2008 team went 15-10. The Keys have the best record in the Carolina League and lead their division by 2 1/2 games.

Catcher Steel Russell drove in four runs last night while Brenden Webb added two RBIs as the Keys improved to 10-4 in games decided by two runs or less.

Frederick left-hander Matt Taylor was hit in the head by a line drive in the third inning of that game and was hospitalized with a concussion. Click here for the story filed here last night on that. Late last night, Taylor tweeted that he was in some pain but that a CT scan came back clean.

Single-A Delmarva also won with a three-run rally in the top of the ninth last night as the Shorebirds beat Savannah, 7-6. Outfielder Conor Bierfeldt's three-run double in the ninth gave the Birds the lead, and he drove in four on the night. Over his last five games, he is 8-for-20 with nine RBIs. Bierfeldt's double came on a 2-2 pitch as Delmarva was a strike away from losing last night.

Triple-A Norfolk lost 5-3 on Thursday afternoon at Buffalo. Dariel Alvarez went 3-for-4 and is batting .250 and Tyler Wilson gave up four runs over 4 2/3 to fall to 1-3 with an ERA of 3.86.

Bowie had the night off and will host Harrisburg tonight. Outfielder Mike Yastrzemski is 10-for-25 over his last five games with four doubles and five RBIs to raise his average from .194 to .253.

Final word: We have heard a few times now that the Tampa Bay Rays will put on a "neutral presentation" tonight when the Orioles play "home" games there the next three days.

I guess they mean the Rays won't put on their usual between innings entertainment and so forth. I don't understand why this is important. It doesn't benefit the Orioles as a team in any way that I can see, and it doesn't benefit the Rays fans that will not see what they usually see in their own ballpark.

Is this somehow supposed to make the Orioles feel better about losing these home games?

By the way, according to rule 2.00 in the MLB rule book, the home team is the team on whose grounds the game is played; therefore, statistics from the games will be recorded as home games for the Rays. The Rays will finish the season with 84 home games and the Orioles with 84 road games

I don't truly understand why MLB and the Rays could not have just decided to have Tampa Bay swap out home series and have each team play the same number of home games. I'm sure they had some reasons, I just don't know what they are, but maybe I shouldn't be too critical here.

But having a "neutral presentation" doesn't really help anything. It is wasted effort in my opinion. Take it for what it is, a Rays home game being called an Orioles home game. At least the Orioles get to bat last.

As Buck Showalter will say, no one will feel sorry for the Orioles here and this is just another challenge they have to meet, playing home games at Tropicana Field where they are 8-4 since the start of last season.