Notes on Kevin Gausman, Jonathan Schoop and more

Pitching, defense and a three-run homer. OK, the Orioles didn't get all three last night, but they did hit a solo homer. It was a nice and tidy 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays and a good start to an important road trip.

At least in recent days, the Orioles certainly don't seem to be unnerved by the oncoming non-waiver trade deadline. Since being swept by the Cubs to start the second half, they are 6-2.

Still under .500 at 48-51, the Orioles win did knock the Rays, at least for now, out of the second wild card spot in the American League. The Royals (51-47) now hold the spot and are 3 1/2 games ahead of the Orioles. Tonight, the Orioles will play game No. 100.

With three scoreless starts over his past six games, right-hander Kevin Gausman is now the leader on this team in scoreless starts of at least five innings:

3 - Kevin Gausman
2 - Dylan Bundy, Ubaldo Jiménez
1 - Chris Tillman, Wade Miley

This year, Gausman has thrown two games versus Tampa Bay and has pitched 13 scoreless innings, allowing seven hits with five walks and 17 strikeouts. Gausman has now pitched 20 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings versus the Rays.

Over his past four starts against Tampa Bay, he is 3-1 with an ERA of 0.35. Over 25 2/3 innings, he has yielded just 14 hits and seven walks with 31 strikeouts. Gausman has now recorded seven quality starts and two in a row for just the second time in 2017.

In the last four games of the Orioles homestand that ended Sunday, O's pitchers allowed 30 runs. In those games, O's starters allowed 21 runs over 21 innings. So Gausman's outing was most welcome and got the road trip off to a good start.

Gausman has been averaging a swing-and-miss rate of 10 percent on his pitches this year, which rose to 17 percent last night when he got 17 swings-and-misses on 98 pitches. He got six whiffs on his 23 split-finger fastballs.

A streak is alive: Second baseman Jonathan Schoop did not have a hit last night, but when he came up with a sac fly in the eighth inning, he extended a streak. He has driven in at least one run in eight consecutive games. That ties for the fourth-longest streak in Orioles team history.

The top three streaks for the Orioles:
* 11 games by Doug Decinces from Sept. 22, 1978 to April 6, 1979
* 10 games by Reggie Jackson from July 11-23, 1976
* 9 games by Miguel Tejada from April 8-17, 2005

Brooks Robinson was the first Oriole to have a streak of eight straight games with an RBI when he did that from Aug. 4-10, 1965. Later, others joined him, as Merv Rettenmund, Mike Devereaux, Rafeal Palmeiro and J.J. Hardy had eight-game streaks. Schoop has now joined that group and could tie Tejada tonight for third-longest run in club history.

During these eight games, Schoop is batting .394 (13-for-33) with three homers and 17 RBIs. Adam Jones is fast on his heels. His solo home run last night gives Jones a current streak of six consecutive games with at least an RBI. In those six contests, Jones is batting .483 (14-for-29) with three homers and 11 RBIs. Over his past two games, Jones is 7-for-10, raising his average from .266 to .278.

The Orioles improved to 6-4 against the Rays with the win and are now 27-20 versus AL East teams.

Was this the best double play of the year?

Manny Magic to end the 1st! #Birdland pic.twitter.com/uTSBkimb1Z

-- Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) July 24, 2017