O's game blog: Chris Tillman pitches series finale

Right-hander Chris Tillman (1-7, 7.91 ERA), who has had a season's worth of struggles in 2017, will try to pitch the Orioles to a four-game split with Toronto this afternoon.

The Blue Jays had lost 10 of 12 games when this series began, but they've held the Orioles to three runs over the last two games and have taken two of three in this series. The Orioles have gone 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position in the past two nights.

The Orioles (69-67) have now fallen 2 1/2 games back for the second American League wild card after Minnesota crushed Kansas City 17-0 last night. The Orioles have won eight of 10 overall and nine of their past 12 games. They are 42-28 at Oriole Park.

The Blue Jays (63-73) last night won for just the fourth time in their last 15 games. Toronto is 2-1 this weekend in Baltimore, but just 8-16 in its last 24 road games.

Tillman was the winning pitcher May 7 in his season debut. But he is 0-7 in 16 starts since and the Orioles are 5-11 in those games. Last season, the Orioles were 22-8 when Tillman got the start.

In two starts since re-entering the rotation, Tillman has allowed 10 runs and 10 walks in 10 2/3 innings. The Orioles are 0-7 in Tillman's last seven starts.

This year, he has allowed five or more runs nine times in 17 starts. Last year, he did that five times in 30 starts.

Left-hander Brett Anderson (2-3, 6.83 ERA) gets the start for Toronto. The Cubs signed him in January as a free agent but released him July 31. Toronto signed him to a minor league deal Aug. 14 and he has made one start for the Blue Jays. On Tuesday versus Boston, he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up six hits and one run on 85 pitches.

Anderson has made just seven big league starts this season. In those games, lefty batters are hitting .478 (11-for-23) against him and righty batters are hitting .302.

When he his pitching well, Anderson gets a lot of ground balls. He has a 58 percent career groundball rate, allowing just 0.8 homers per every nine innings.

Earlier today, the Orioles' Manny Machado was named the AL Player of the Month for August. Click here for that story.