O's game blog: Chris Tillman gets another shot at Toronto in series opener

The Toronto Blue Jays begin a series in Baltimore tonight against the Orioles as a team closing in on the American League East championship. They hold a four-game lead over the New York Yankees and a magic number of four to succeed the Orioles as division champs.

Toronto beat Tampa Bay 5-4 Sunday on Josh Donaldson's walk-off homer. At 90-65, they are a season-high 25 games above .500 for the first time since the final day of the 1993 season (95-67, +28 games).

Toronto owns the highest win percentage among MLB teams since the All-Star break at .703 (45-19). It is the best win percentage following the break by any club since the 2009 Yankees (.703, 52-22). The Blue Jays have posted these impressive numbers while also recording the worst one-run record in the AL at 14-27.

Among AL teams in the second half, Toronto is the leader in runs (367), home runs (107), walks (246), on-base percentage (.347), slugging (.476), OPS (.823), ERA (3.21) and WHIP (1.10).

The Orioles have gone 6-9 this season against Toronto, including a 3-3 mark at home. The O's have been outscored 94-83 in the 15 games, but have out-homered Toronto 22-19. Manny Machado is batting .368 (21-for-57) versus Toronto pitchers this year with seven doubles, three homers and 13 RBIs along with an OPS of 1.082.

On the mound tonight, Chris Tillman (10-11, 5.16 ERA) faces Toronto right-hander Marco Estrada (13-8, 3.13 ERA).

Tillman is making his 30th start and will become the 16th Orioles starting pitcher to record at least three seasons of at least 30 starts while notching at least 10 wins. It will mark three consecutive 30 start/10 win seasons for Tillman. Wei-Yin Chen also recorded his third 30 start/10 win season in his last outing.

Tillman is 0-4 with a 15.50 ERA in five 2015 starts against the Blue Jays. Over 18 innings, he has given up 35 hits and 31 runs, including nine homers and a .407 batting average against. When he started at Toronto on Sept. 6, he was behind 3-0 just three batters into the game as Ben Revere singled and scored on Josh Donaldson's double, followed by Jose Bautista's two-run homer.

Estrada has pitched to an ERA of 1.23 his past two starts. Since Aug. 1, he is 5-2 with a 2.45 ERA in 10 starts. In five career games (three starts) versus the Orioles, he is 2-1 with a 3.32 ERA.

On this date in 2000, the Orioles scored 10 runs in the fourth inning on their way to a 23-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, the club record for most runs scored in a game. The Orioles had eight hits, a walk and took advantage of two errors in the fourth inning to take a 16-0 lead. Outfielder Delino DeShields collected five RBIs, outfielder Brady Anderson scored four runs and notched four RBIs, and catcher Brook Fordyce had four hits and scored four to pace the Orioles' 23-hit attack that day.

The Orioles begin this game looking to snap a 28-innings scoreless streak. They got shutout in each of the three games at Boston. The club record is 33 consecutive innings set in 1957.