O's game blog: Dylan Bundy on mound in Chicago series finale

CHICAGO - The Orioles and White Sox play the third and deciding game of their three-game series this afternoon. The Orioles (62-47) won Friday night 7-2 and lost last night 4-2 to the White Sox (53-57).

Chicago has lost seven of its last 10 games and is 8-14 since the All-Star break. The Sox are 29-25 at home and 16-12 versus the American League East, including a 3-3 mark against the Orioles.

Chicago has been getting solid starting pitching for much of this season. Over the past 14 games, Chicago starting pitchers have an ERA of 2.97. Chicago's 64 quality starts rank second in the AL.

The Orioles have won four of their past six games. This followed a five-game losing streak, which followed a five-game winning streak, which followed four consecutive losses.

A few hitting notes:

* Adam Jones is batting .305 over his last 41 games with six doubles, eight homers and 24 RBIs.

* J.J. Hardy is batting .347 his last 28 games with seven doubles, two homers and 16 RBIs.

* Manny Machado has reached base safely in 14 of his last 15 games against the White Sox, batting .367 with three homers and 10 RBIs.

* Mark Trumbo is 7-for-50 (.140) his last 13 games and Jonathan Schoop is 8-for-42 (.190) his past 11 games.

On the mound this afternoon, right-hander Dylan Bundy (4-3, 3.05 ERA) faces right-hander James Shields (3-6, 5.64 ERA).

Bundy's last outing was outstanding. He pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just one single Tuesday at home versus Texas. He walked one, fanned seven and threw 88 pitches. Two starts ago he had a perfect game through 5 1/3 innings and in that last start he had a no-hitter through 5 2/3 innings.

In those past two games, Colorado and Texas batters went a combined 3-for-40 (.075) against Bundy. Over his last three starts, he is 2-1 with a 1.53 ERA. In his four starts overall, he is 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 21 innings.

Bundy was so good in that last outing that Darren O'Day said this about the right-hander: "He was born with a gift to command the baseball. It was fun to watch. Talked about it before, the first bullpen I saw him throw in 2012, it was amazing for such a young kid to have that kind of command.

"He's healthy again. And he is showing why he was such a high pick. He's got a great mentality. We enjoyed the time we had with him in the bullpen, but I think he's moved onto better things."

Over his past 10 games, Bundy has pitched to an ERA of 1.78. In 35 1/3 innings he has allowed 24 hits and seven earned runs with nine walks and 43 strikeouts.

Shields was traded from San Diego to the White Sox on June 4. In 11 starts since then he has a WHIP of 1.599 and has given up 10.4 hits per nine innings. In his past start on Tuesday he gave up six runs over five innings versus Detroit. But in his previous six starts, his ERA was 1.71.

Shields has not faced the Orioles in 2016, but he saw them a lot when he was with Tampa Bay. In 26 career starts, he is 11-7 with an ERA of 3.52 and WHIP of 1.1214.