Notes on starting pitching, one-run games and some wild card math

The Orioles' three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals was quite impressive. They did it without Adam Jones and Zach Britton. They did it winning games where they trailed in the seventh inning Wednesday and in the eighth inning yesterday. They did it against a Nats team desperate for wins to make the playoffs.

The Orioles have their own level of desperation going right now, but they have turned around their recent losing stretch to get back to .500. The Orioles are 3 1/2 games back of Houston for the second American League wild card. Stranger things have happened.

A few notes on the Orioles:

* The Orioles are suddenly very good again in one-run games. Since Sept. 2 they are 7-1 in such decisions, taking the last two games of the series at Washington by 4-3 and 5-4 scores. Their only such loss in this stretch was when Tampa Bay came back to beat the Orioles on Sunday in the last of the ninth.

The Orioles' one-run record has improved from 17-24 to 24-25 during this recent stretch.

* The Orioles held the Nats offense and Bryce Harper in check in the series. Washington was scoring 6.0 runs per game its last 32 games as the series began. But they scored eight runs on 19 hits in this series.

Harper went hitless in three straight games for the first time all year. He was 0-for-6 and walked seven times over the last three days. Heading into this series, he was batting .435 in 19 games in September with 10 homers, 18 RBIs and with a 1.543 OPS.

* The Orioles have played 10 season series all-time against the Nationals. They have won six, tied three and lost just one. Since 2012, the Orioles have gone 4-2, 3-1, 3-1 and 4-2 versus Washington for a record of 14-6. The only time the O's lost the season series to the Nats was in 2007, when they lost four of six games.

* O's starting pitchers have worked six innings or more for five consecutive games. That is not exactly a streak to brag about, but they had worked six or more innings in just three of the previous 19 games.

O's starters have pitched to an ERA of 2.90 during this stretch. In the series against the Nationals, Ubaldo Jimenez, Chris Tillman and Tyler Wilson each pitched six innings for a series ERA of 2.50 by that trio.

Wild card check: The Orioles' run of 11 wins in 15 games has put them back in the hunt for the second AL wild card. Houston (80-73) leads that race by 1 1/2 games over Minnesota and the Los Angeles Angels (both are 78-74) with the Orioles 3 1/2 games back.

Let's say the Orioles went 8-2 in their final 10 games, a mark that is tough but at least doable. To catch each of those teams, they would need Houston to do no better then 4-5, while the Twins and Angels could do no better than 6-4. In fact, if each of those teams finished with those exact records the rest of the way all four teams would tie with a record of 84-78.

Their remaining schedules:

Orioles: 3 at Boston, 4 versus Toronto, 3 versus New York
Houston: 3 versus Texas, 3 at Seattle, 3 at Arizona
Minnesota: 3 at Detroit, 4 at Cleveland, 3 versus Kansas City
Los Angeles: 3 versus Seattle, 3 versus Oakland, 4 at Texas