O's game blog: Kevin Gausman makes season debut facing Tampa Bay

After three rehab starts for three different Orioles minor league affiliates, right-hander Kevin Gausman finally will pitch in a major league game tonight. He makes his Orioles season debut as the Birds face the Rays in the opener of a three-game series at Tropicana Field.

Gausman went two innings and threw 47 pitches in his first rehab start. Then he threw 77 pitches over 3 1/3 innings and then 91 pitches in 5 2/3. That last start was with Triple-A Norfolk last Wednesday. Gausman allowed four hits and three runs with two walks and nine strikeouts.

Gausman had been on the disabled list due to right shoulder tendinitis. He said in that last outing he cleared a mental hurdle.

"Last time out in Charlotte was the first time I was really letting it go with confidence that there was nothing wrong and that I was going to be fine," Gausman said Friday in the clubhouse at Kansas City. "Mentally, I think anytime you get hurt, the first time you really have to get past that threshold of feeling like, 'OK, I'm going to let this one go.' Once you get past that, you should be all right."

Right-hander Chris Archer (0-4, 7.32 ERA) makes his fifth start tonight for the Rays. Archer has allowed a .345 batting average against this year but still features a strikeout rate of 13.3 per nine innings with 29 over 19 2/3 innings.

But Archer, who finished fifth in the Cy Young vote last season, has already allowed six runs twice in four starts. Once was April 8 in Baltimore, when he gave up six runs and 10 hits over five innings. Chris Davis homered against him in the second inning and then the Orioles hit three homers in a span of five batters in the fifth inning. Jonathan Schoop, Nolan Reimold and Manny Machado all went deep that inning against Archer, who had allowed three homers in a game just one time last season over 34 starts.

In 10 career games (nine starts) versus the Orioles, Archer is 2-5 with a 5.03 ERA and 1.509 WHIP. Schoop is 4-for-7 against him, Machado is 9-for-22 and Davis is 5-for-14.

The best bullpen ERAs in MLB:
1.51 - White Sox
1.72 - Orioles
1.96 - Nationals
2.19 - Cardinals
2.63 - Mariners

Mark Trumbo has 16 RBIs to lead the Orioles and all 16 have come in road games. In nine games this year away from Camden Yards (where he is batting .414), Trumbo is batting .342 (13-for-38) with three doubles, five homers, an .816 slugging percentage and an OPS of 1.175. Trumbo has five RBIs his last two games.

The Orioles are 6-2 against American League East teams, winning all three series they've played, one each against Tampa Bay, Boston and Toronto. They are 2-0 this year against the Rays and have won five of the last seven between the teams.