O's game blog: Jorge López faces Tampa Bay

As the Orioles try to even their series against the Tampa Bay Rays today after Friday's series-opening loss, they will have to beat a red-hot pitcher.

Lefty Rich Hill (5-2, 3.05 ERA) gets the start for the Rays. He has thrown back-to-back scoreless starts versus the Yankees and Rangers, allowing five hits in 10 innings in those games. Over his past seven games, he has not allowed a run five times, going 4-1 with an ERA of 0.68. In 39 2/3 innings in that span, he has walked 13, fanned 39 and allowed just two home runs. Opponents are batting .143 with a .458 OPS against.

Hill's 0.68 ERA is the lowest by a Rays traditional starter over a seven-game span in club history. He is 4-2 with a 0.99 ERA and 49 strikeouts over his last eight starts, allowing two runs or fewer in all eight. It is the second-longest streak of his career as a starter, behind a nine-start stretch from May 18 to Sept. 10, 2016. It's tied for the fifth-longest streak by a Rays traditional starter and is the longest since Blake Snell (8) from June 30, 2019 to July 26, 2020.

Hill has used his curveball on 39.6 percent of his pitches this season, the highest rate in the majors (minimum 400 pitches). Minimum 50 innings, its pitch value of 7.5, according to Fangraphs.com, ranks as the second-best curveball in the majors behind the Los Angeles Dodgers' Julio Urías (10.4) and his 24.7 percent whiff rate on the pitch is his highest since 2017 (25.1).

Hill is 3-0 with a 1.32 ERA (four earned runs, 27 1/3 innings pitched) in 14 career games (four starts) against the Orioles, including a win against them on May 20 at Oriole Park when he allowed one run over six innings.

Righty Jorge López (2-6, 5.30 ERA) gets the start for Baltimore. Since posting an ERA of 7.48 in April, he is 1-3 with a 3.93 ERA over his past seven starts.

With his start in Baltimore's 18-5 victory over Cleveland last Sunday, López ended his second four-game losing streak of the season with his first win at Oriole Park since Sept. 14, 2020. He gave up three runs on four hits and three walks with two strikeouts through five innings. He received 12 runs of support after entering the contest with just 11 runs of support on the season.

López will be facing the Rays for the first time since his quality start on Sept. 19, 2020 against them, when he yielded three runs and eight hits over six innings. He is 0-2 in three career games (two starts) against the division rivals with a 3.00 ERA, five walks, and eight strikeouts. This will be his first start at Tropicana Field since Aug. 20, 2018.

The Orioles (22-40) have 100 games left to play after Friday's 4-2 loss. They are 0-4 this season against the Rays, 8-16 versus the American League East, 5-3 in June and 11-19 in road games.

The O's have lost 13 consecutive road games, dating to May 11 at Citi Field versus the New York Mets. It is the third-longest road losing streak in the majors this season, behind a 16-game skid by the Texas Rangers and a 19-game winless drought by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and both of those streaks are active. It is tied for the longest road losing streak in franchise history. The Orioles also dropped 13 straight from April 13 to May 17, 2018 and from April 8-28, 1988. Prior to a loss on May 11 the Orioles had gone 11-6 on the road to open the season, the third-best road winning percentage (.647) at the time.

Trey Mancini leads the Orioles with 12 home runs and 47 RBIs and has also recorded the second-most hits on the team with 63. Mancini's RBIs are tied for the fifth-most in baseball.

He blasted his 98th career home run in his 522nd career game last night. Only four Orioles have reached 100 home runs within the first 600 games of their careers: Boog Powell (107), Chris Hoiles (105), Manny Machado (104), and Eddie Murray (101). No Orioles batter has ever reached 100 career home runs within his first 550 games. Only 27 batters have hit 100 home runs or more in an Orioles uniform.