O's game blog: Dylan Bundy pitches series opener at Texas

After scoring just three runs in losing the last two games at home over the weekend versus San Francisco, the Orioles hit the road for a trip to Texas this week to face the Rangers and Houston Astros.

Tonight, the Orioles (18-41), who have lost four of five, 12 of 15 and 19 of 24, begin a three-game series at Texas. The Rangers (30-27) hold the second American League wild card right now and are five games back of Tampa Bay, the first AL wild card team and one game ahead of Boston.

Texas is 3-1 on an 11-game homestand and the Rangers have one of the best home records in MLB at 20-9. It's the second-best 29-game home start for the Rangers, who were 22-7 in 1996. Texas has won six of seven and nine of its past 11 games in Arlington. The Orioles went 1-3 there last year (and 4-5 on the year against Texas) and they are 4-10 there the past four seasons.

The Rangers have been playing well, going 13-5 the last 18 games. Texas is 5-1 in its last six series and 8-1-1 in 10 home series in 2019.

Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy (2-6, 4.58 ERA) will make his 12th start. Bundy has had two very different months to begin his season. In April, he went 0-4 with an ERA of 6.67, a WHIP of 1.518 and averaged allowing 2.86 homers per nine innings.

But in May over five starts, he went 2-2 with an ERA of 2.64 that ranked 10th in the AL among qualifying pitchers. Bundy allowed a batting average of .270 and OPS against of .951 in April and in May those numbers were .195/.617. In the month he allowed 1.17 homers/nine.

Over his past seven starts, Bundy has pitched to an ERA of 3.24. He has three quality starts in that span and missed two others by an out, pitching 5 2/3 twice. Lefty batters have hit .219 with an OPS of .665 against Bundy and right-handers hit .244/.890.

For Texas, left-hander Drew Smyly (1-3, 6.98 ERA) will make his eighth start and 10th outing overall. He has a WHIP of 1.759, has allowed 2.3 homers per nine with 6.3 walks and 9.1 strikeouts.

Smyly threw five innings of relief, allowing seven runs on 91 pitches last Wednesday at Seattle. Over his past four games he has yielded 16 earned runs in 19 2/3 innings for an ERA of 7.32. In 10 career games (seven starts) against Baltimore, Smyly is 4-1 with a 3.72 ERA. He has not pitched against the Orioles since the 2016 season.

Click here to review my previous entry that includes stats, notes and quotes on today's draft picks. It also includes the rundown of the eight Single-A Delmarva players headed to the South Atlantic League All-Star game.