O's game blog: Going for two in a row against the Indians

The Orioles last won back-to-back games on May 4-6 against the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox. Today they take yet another shot at a two-game win streak when they host the Cleveland Indians. It's been 46 games since the last two-game streak.

A win today would also end the club's drought in securing a series victory. The last by the Orioles was when they took two of three against the Chicago White Sox April 22-24. They are 0-17-1 in series play since then.

The Orioles defeated the Indians 13-0 in the opening game of the three-game series Friday night as Chance Sisco drove in five, Anthony Santander knocked in four and they went 8-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

It was Baltimore's second shutout of the season, the other was on May 4 by 3-0 versus Tampa Bay. It was the largest shutout victory since Aug. 19, 2006 when they beat Toronto 15-0. The Orioles ended a seven-game home losing streak.

The 13-run differential is the largest win margin by the Orioles this season and largest since they defeated Tampa Bay 17-1 on May 13, 2018. Before recording the shutout, O's pitchers had allowed 45 runs the previous five games and 74 in the last eight.

The Orioles scored four runs in the first and second inning and according to STATS LLC., it is the first time the O's have scored four or more runs in each of the first two innings since Aug. 26, 1979 against the White Sox.

At 16-8 in June, Cleveland is tied with Texas for the best win percentage in the AL this month. The Indians haven't lost consecutive games since dropping two straight from May 30-31 versus the White Sox. Tribe pitchers lead the AL in ERA at 3.89, WHIP (1.18) and opponent batting average (.228) for the month. Cleveland owns the best slugging percentage (.496) and are tied with Minnesota for the most home runs (45) in the AL this month, rank second in OPS (.819), third in triples (6) and fifth in batting average (.265).

Right-hander Andrew Cashner (7-3, 4.37) was scheduled to make his 16th start today. But about a half-hour before game time the Orioles announced that Shawn Armstrong (0-0, 3.91 ERA) will make his first MLB start. No word yet on why Cashner is being scratched. From May 26-June 19, Armstrong did not allow an earned run over eight games. But in his past three games, he's allowed six hits and seven runs with two homers over five innings.

Right-hander Zach Plesac (3-2, 2.33 ERA) gets the ball for Cleveland. In his last start, the rookie became the first Cleveland pitcher to pitch seven or more innings and allow two or fewer earned runs in four of his first six career starts since John Farrell in 1987 and the first MLB pitcher to do so since the Chicago Cubs' Kyle Hendricks in 2014.

Plesac is the nephew of former big league All-Star left-hander Dan Plesac, who pitched for Milwaukee, Toronto, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the Chicago White Sox over the course of his 18-year career.