O's game blog: It's Chen against Moore in road trip finale

The Orioles scored five runs in their win over Tampa Bay on Saturday night. While four came on one swing, it was still just the third time in the last 19 games the Orioles have scored five or more runs.

With that 5-1 win, thanks in large part to Chris Davis's fifth career grand slam, the Orioles are 41-12 when they score four or more runs and 6-37 when they score three runs or less.

The Orioles have had 10 hits or fewer in 23 of their last 24 games. They've had seven hits or fewer in the last five games, with a team average of .181 with 14 runs scored in that stretch. Five of their seven hits last night came in the third inning. They went 5-for-8 that inning and 2-for-26 the rest of the game.

But still they got a win to break a four-game losing streak and improve to 47-49. They will try to end their road trip with a win today to take the series against Tampa Bay.

While last night they faced a pitcher on a roll while their starter had struggled recently, today the opposite is true.

The O's start Wei-Yin Chen (4-6, 2.86 ERA) against left-hander Matt Moore (1-1, 7.23 ERA). Coming back from Tommy John surgery, this will be Moore's fifth start of the season.

Chen gave up three runs and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings in his last start at New York, snapping a stretch of seven straight starts allowing two earned runs or less. Chen has recorded a career-high tying and an O's season-high six straight quality starts, going 2-2 with a 2.28 ERA. Over his last eight starts, he is 3-2 with a 2.47 ERA.

Chen has been pretty consistent this year with an ERA of 2.88 at home and 2.83 on the road. He had an ERA of 2.78 in April, 3.46 in May and 2.13 in June. His July ERA is 2.76.

Chen is 1-2 with a 3.10 ERA in nine career starts at Tropicana Field. He is 3-5 with an ERA of 3.42 in 16 starts versus the Rays.

The 26-year-old Moore has had some command issues in his return from surgery. In 18 2/3 innings, he has allowed 25 hits with 10 walks, 11 strikeouts and a .333 average against. He has thrown between 81 and 88 pitches in each of his four starts.

Moore has not faced the Orioles this year and is 4-3 with an ERA of 3.86 in eight games and seven career starts versus Baltimore. He has allowed an average of .286 with a WHIP of 1.61 in his career against the Orioles.