Mychal Givens talks strikeouts and his numbers against lefty batters

Orioles reliever Mychal Givens pitched his latest solid outing on Sunday against Detroit. He threw two scoreless innings with three strikeouts and is now 2-0 with an ERA of 2.25 over 15 games.

"Just trying to bounce back each time, just take one pitch at a time. Trying to get ahead and stay ahead and put the pressure on the hitters," Givens said.

After allowing three runs over his first two outings, he has given up just one earned run over 14 innings in his past 13 appearances. The right-hander, who turned 26 on Friday, has been a strikeout machine, with 25 over 16 innings. After averaging 11.4 strikeouts per every nine innings in 2015, that number is 14.1 per nine for Givens this season.

When Givens gets two strikes on a hitter, does he go for the punchout?

"I wouldn't say I go for them. Just trying to get out of the inning," he said. "Trying to have a clean inning and go one, two, three. If I get a strikeout, it's a bonus. I don't try to have the most strikeouts, just have a clean inning."

Has he been getting a lot of strikeouts on that nasty slider?

"Just on locating pitches well," he said. "Slider has been helping me with some strikeouts. But some of them, I've been working with and learning from Darren (O'Day) about the rising fastball to get hitters to chase (up in the zone). Been doing that along with locating the fastball and having a good slider to get some strikeout pitches."

For his next trick, Givens would like to improve his stats against left-handed batters. They are batting .550 against him this year at 11-for-20. By contrast, right-handed batters are hitting just .159 with 22 strikeouts over 44 at-bats. Givens has been dominant versus right-handed batters. Last year in the majors, Givens gave up an average of just .205 against lefty hitters. So while he has fared poorly in the small sample this year, he handled lefties just fine last year.

"I've looked at it," Givens said of his numbers against lefty batters. "It is early in the year and my numbers have usually been good against lefties. It is kind of the luck of the draw. I've felt like I am making more quality pitches against lefties than righties. But there have been some jam shots going the other way. It will come around and I'll have the winning part of it. Keeping my head up against lefties. I'll find some holes in their swing and get them out."

Tonight, the Orioles try to even the series against Seattle after last night's 10-0 loss. Ubaldo Jimenez gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings in his shortest start of 2016. Jimenez has walked four batters in five different starts. Over his past four starts, he is 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA.

Reliever Brian Matusz is also struggling. He gave up four runs in 1 2/3 last night including two homers. He has allowed seven walks and three homers in six innings this season. Lefty batters are 5-for-11 against Matusz with five walks for a .455 batting averge and .625 OBP. After last night's game Matusz talked about his struggles during this season.

Live chats here today: Later today at 1 p.m., I will be hosting a live chat from our MASNsports.com web studio with Orioles center fielder Adam Jones and first baseman Chris Davis. You can watch the live chat here at MASNsports.com or join the conversation at facebook.com/masnOrioles. The whole session will be available later in our video lounge. Fans can submit questions on Twitter by sending a tweet to @masnOrioles using #MASNchat.