O's game blog: Chen against Boston and some hitting notes

Wei-Yin Chen today will try to overcome some shaky numbers in his career against Boston, as the Orioles look to gain a split of this four-game series. Chen is 2-3 with a 5.24 ERA in eight career starts against the Red Sox. But over his last three starts, he is 0-2 with an 8.04 ERA and has given up five homers over 15 2/3 innings. Chen gave up 12 hits and four runs in 5 2/3 frames against Boston on April 3, but his last outing was a good one as he gave up just one run and five hits in 6 1/3 innings Monday against Tampa Bay. Strange stat: Chen, who gives up a career average of .246 against lefty batters, has given up 10 hits over 18 at-bats (.556) against left-handed batters over his first three starts. A few O's offensive notes: * Adam Jones recorded a season-high four hits on Sunday. It was the 11th four-hit game of his career and his first since Aug. 6, 2013 at San Diego. * Jones is 9-for-17 over his last four games (.529) with two doubles and three RBIs. He is 10-for-23 (.435) in 2014 against Red Sox pitching. * Ryan Flaherty is 8-for-22 (.364) over his past seven games with three doubles and two RBIs. * Jonathan Schoop is 0-for-8 his last two games after batting .429 (12-for-28) during a seven-game hitting streak with six doubles, a homer and seven RBIs. * Chris Davis is 0-for-10 in this series and is 2-for-20 this season with nine strikeouts against the Red Sox. * Nelson Cruz is 7-for-23 (.304) against Boston in 2014 with three homers and eight RBIs. Nice response: So much for being down after last night's loss. The O's knocked Clay Buchholz out of the game during a six-run top of the third. The inning featured a Davis RBI single and that was big for him. He looks more patient today and took yet another walk in the first inning. Cruz knocked in yet another run versus Boston and has 13 RBIs on the year, nine against the Red Sox. Nick Markakis was 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position before he singled in the game's first run. By the way, nice job by the bottom of the order, with Steve Lombardozzi and David Lough starting the rally with singles. The Orioles went 0-for-6 in the first two innings against Buchholz and then went 7-for-8 in the third. There were some boo birds heard that inning at Fenway. Bowie's Walker honored: Bowie first baseman Christian Walker has been named Eastern League Player of the Week for the week ending Sunday. He hit his first and second career Double-A homers during the week. Walker hit .421 (8-for-19) for the week with a triple, two home runs, six RBIs and five runs scored. He has hit safely in eight consecutive games dating back to April 11 with four multi-hit games. On the year, Walker is batting .299 with two doubles, two home runs and 10 RBIs in 16 games. Starters' stats: It has not been a good series for starting pitchers. The O's four starters have not recorded a quality start and have an ERA of 5.40. Boston's starters got one quality start (by Felix Doubront Saturday) and have an ERA of 8.55 in this series. John Lackey, Jake Peavy and Clay Buchholz have combined to allow 17 earned runs over 13 1/3 innings for an ERA of 11.48.