O's game blog: Chen faces Graveman in series finale at Oakland

Since 1999 the Orioles have had a winning record in their season series at Oakland just three times. Most of those years involved just one series, but most of those years the Orioles lost that series.

But they did go 2-1 at Oakland in 2002, 2-1 in 2007 and 3-1 in 2013. They will go 2-1 this year if they get a win this afternoon at Oakland.

In Monday's win, the Orioles scored nine runs with 14 hits including four doubles and two homers and went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position. In last night's loss, they were held to seven hits, went 0-for-8 with RISP and were shut out 5-0 by an A's staff that leads the American League with 14 shutouts.

The O's begin today at 54-52, one game out of the second wild card and 6 1/2 games back in the AL East. They are 22-32 on the road and 8-11 versus the AL West.

Since going through a stretch where they lost 15 of 20 games, the Orioles are 8-3, outscoring their opponents 53-38. Despite the shutout Tuesday, the Orioles offense has picked up a bit over those 11 games, scoring five runs or more seven times.

Second baseman Jonathan Schoop has three straight multi-hit games, going 7-for-11. That has raised his average to .298 in 33 games, and he has an OPS of .878. Schoop is batting .338 against right-handed pitching.

Chris Davis went 1-for-3 with a double and walk last night. Over his last 14 games, Davis is batting .294 with eight homers and 22 RBIs. Davis has five homers and 15 RBIs his last eight games.

Wei-Yin Chen (5-6, 3.24 ERA), who is ninth in the AL in ERA, makes his 21st start of the year today and pitches against right-hander Kendall Graveman (6-7, 3.84 ERA).

Chen went 11 consecutive starts allowing three runs or less until Friday against Detroit. He gave up 10 hits, six runs and three homers over just 3 1/3 innings, which tied for the shortest start of his career. Chen has been allowing a lot of homers lately, giving up two or more in five of his past seven starts. He gave up 11 homers his first 13 starts of 2015 and now has allowed 11 in his past seven starts.

Chen has surrendered two or fewer runs in five of his last six road starts, going 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA and five quality starts. Chen's 2.89 road ERA for the season is 10th among starters. His 1.87 walks per nine innings ranks 12th among qualified American League starters.

Chen has good career numbers against the A's, going 4-0 with a 1.69 ERA in five starts. He is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA in two starts in Oakland.

While Graveman allowed just one run his last start, over his past four he is 0-3 with a 6.63 ERA. In that stretch, he has allowed four homers and walked 11 in 19 innings, with a .313 average against. He is 2-4 with a 4.63 ERA in eight home starts, but has allowed nine homers in 46 2/3 innings in his home park.