O's game blog: A look at tonight's match-up and other O's notes

Enjoying a five-game lead atop the American League East for the first time since Sept. 20, 1997, the Orioles look to go a season-high 17 games over the .500 mark tonight at Toronto. The Orioles beat the second-place Blue Jays 9-3 last night and they now have a current winning record against every AL East team. The O's are 6-5 against Toronto, 7-6 versus Boston, 6-3 against New York and 8-4 against Tampa Bay. The Orioles are 16-7 in AL East road games and have lost just one of their last 11 division series, going 8-1-2. Wei-Yin Chen, (12-3, 3.76 ERA) who is one win off the major league lead, takes the mound tonight. There are seven pitchers in the majors with 13 wins and two in the AL in Detroit's Rick Porcello and Max Scherzer. Chen has won a career-high five straight starts, going 5-0 with an ERA of 2.53 since July 3. In 11 starts since June 1, Chen is 7-1 with a 3.12 ERA. Chen collected 11 wins through the first 100 games of the 2014 season. It places him third in Orioles history for most wins by a lefty starter through the first 100 games of a season, behind only Jimmy Key (13 in 1997) and Erik Bedard (12 in 2006). Right-hander Drew Hutchison (7-9, 4.62 ERA) gets the start for the Blue Jays. Hutchison is 1-0 with an ERA of 0.95 in three 2014 starts and 2-0 with a 1.16 ERA in five career starts against Baltimore. But he has allowed four or more runs in three of his last four starts, pitching to an ERA of 9.16 and allowing 26 hits in 17 2/3 innings. The Orioles are looking for a season-high sixth straight series win if they win one of the next two. In four games this year at Rogers Centre, the Orioles have scored 33 runs on 48 hits. The O's lead the majors with 41 multi-homer games, going 31-10 in those games. They are 53-24 on the season when they hit at least one homer. The Orioles' 44-10 record when scoring first is the best in the majors, and so is their 22-9 overall record since June 30 and their 19-8 road record since May 31. The Orioles' player development department has named Single-A Delmarva lefty Luis Gonzalez the organization's Pitcher of the Month and Delmarva third baseman Drew Dosch as the Player of the Month for July. Gonzalez was 4-0 with a 1.65 ERA in five starts, while Dosch batted .364 with a homer and 15 RBIs.