More stats and notes from Oakland's 4-2 win over the O's

Here are more notes and stats to ponder from the Orioles 4-2 loss to the Oakland A's Tuesday in the opener of a three-game series. Not this time: After scoring 37 runs and batting .330 over the last six games, and after scoring 17 runs in the series vs. Washington, the O's were held to two runs on five hits by Oakland. The O's went 5 for 29 at bat with four doubles. The O's had the leadoff runner on base in seven of nine innings but left nine on base and went just 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Not this time too: Adam Jones went 0 for 3 with a walk, snapping his eight-game batting streak. Jones hit .424-4-9 during the streak. He is now batting .329 over his past 21 games. Matt Wieters drew a walk as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning, so his six-game batting streak is still alive. Wieters is hitting .421 (8 for 19) during the streak with a homer and 8 RBI. Cesar Izturis went 1 for 4 with an RBI double and he is 7 for 19 during a five-game batting streak. Tonight's RBI was just his second over his last 17 games. Luke Scott went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a pair of doubles. Scott has 6 RBI over his last nine games. No bull in this pen: The O's two pitchers used out of the bullpen, Jason Berken and Koji Uehara, combined to give up one run over 2 2/3 innings. It was Koji's first appearance since May 19 at Texas. He has now allowed two runs and five hits over six innings this year. The Orioles bullpen has worked to an ERA of 0.93 over the last five games. In that stretch, the pen has allowed 2 ER on 12 hits over 19 1/3 innings. A's tough on O's: The Orioles continue to struggle vs. Oakland. Even though Oakland entered this series coming off a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh, the A's had lost 10 of 15 games over a longer stretch. But they are now 6-2 on the year vs. the Orioles. With the win, they have now clinched the season series over the O's for the third consecutive year and for the 11th time in 12 seasons. Oakland has won 16 of the last 19 games between these teams and the A's are now 18-5 in their past 23 games at Camden Yards. Furthermore, Oakland is now 71-30 vs. Baltimore since 1999, the best winning percentage of any AL team vs. the O's in that time frame. They pitch well: The A's team ERA is 3.04 on the season vs. the Orioles and O's batters are hitting just .223 in those eight games vs. Oakland. Two is tough: While the O's are 5-1 over their past six one-run games, improving to 13-11 on the year in those contests, they fell to 2-10 in two-run games with this loss. So that makes the Orioles 15-21 in games decided by two runs or less on the year and 36 of their 76 games have been decided by two or fewer runs. He deserves a win: Despite allowing 3 ER over 6 1/3 for his ninth quality start of this season, Brian Matusz remains winless since April 18. He is 0-9 with four no decisions over his past 13 starts. The O's have scored just 17 runs while Matusz has been in the game over his past dozen starts. On Wednesday night at 7:05, Kevin Millwood (2-8, 5.22) pitches vs. Ben Sheets (3-7, 5.01). In eight home starts, Millwood is 1-3, 5.40 and in 17 career starts vs. Oakland, he is 6-4, 3.44. Sheets got the win vs. Pittsburgh in his last start on Friday, but is 0-5, 6.95 on the road and has not posted a road win since August 26, 2008 at St. Louis. He is 1-1, 3.75 in two career starts vs. the Orioles.