O's game blog: After 8-5 stretch, the Orioles are one game out of first

So, after they have won four of six games and are 8-5 over their last 13 games, is this the beginning of a hot streak for the Orioles?

Fans have thought that before and it didn't happen. After last night's win, the Orioles are back within a game of .500 at 23-24. A win today would bring them back to .500 for the first time since May 5 when they were 12-12.

Back on May 11, the Orioles were 13-16 and had just ended a six-game stretch where they went 1-5 on the road against the Mets and Yankees.

But that night, they started a 20-game stretch of games with 17 at home. It is a stretch that ends here tomorrow afternoon. The Orioles are 10-8 in this stretch and have gone from 5 1/2 games out of first place to one game out. No one has set the world on fire in this division to say the least, and the Orioles have gained 4 1/2 games on first place by playing .556 baseball the last 18 games.

I wrote this at the start of this stretch and said a good goal would be for the Orioles to go 12-8 to end it a couple of games over .500 and within a couple of games of first place. It looks like they will at least achieve the second part of that, and they can get over .500 with a sweep of Tampa Bay.

The team is still not scoring enough runs. They have scored two runs or less in 10 of the last 19 games. The Orioles are batting just .234 as a team in May and scoring 3.3 runs per game this month.

They are 13-14 in May and their team ERA of 3.22 this month is among the best in the American League.

Team ERA leaders in the AL in May:
3.14 - Tampa Bay
3.22 - Orioles
3.39 - Los Angeles

Over the last 16 games, the Orioles rotation has pitched to an ERA of 3.27 and produced 10 starts of seven innings or more. The O's starters had a goal of pitching deeper into games this year and they are beginning to do that. That should bode well for the rest of the season if the offense can come around.

Since he ended a 13-game homerless stretch with two homers on Wednesday night against Houston, Chris Davis is 6-for-13 his last four games with a double, four homers and seven RBIs. He has an RBI in five straight games. Only three players in the AL have more than his 12 homers.

While he is batting just .228 and leads the team with 65 strikeouts, Davis also has six more homers than any other Oriole and four more RBIs. This latest surge has increased his OPS to .818, which now tops Adam Jones at .800.

Jones is not starting today for the first time since Game 160 last year. Jones has some swelling and soreness in his left ankle, a result of his slide into home plate in Game 2 of Thursday's doubleheader against the White Sox. He potentially could pinch hit or play in the game at some point.

Jones has gone without a homer for 17 games and has hit just one in his last 35 games.

On the mound here this afternoon, Wei-Yin Chen (1-3, 3.13 ERA) pitches for the Orioles against Tampa Bay right-hander Erasmo Ramirez (2-2, 6.62).

Chen has allowed seven runs and 19 hits in 12 innings his last two starts. While he has just one win, the Orioles are 5-4 in his nine starts.

Ramirez got off to a terrible start - he gave up 15 earned runs in 5 1/3 in his first two appearances - but he has been good since then.

He has an ERA of 3.30 since April 19 and ranks first in the AL in that stretch (min. 25 innings) with a .160 batting average against. But, he did give up five runs in six innings in his last start against Oakland.

So back to how we started this blog. Are the Orioles slowly, but surely, beginning to play better baseball?