O's game blog: Looking for another win against Mariners

After their win last night over Seattle, the Orioles look for another tonight in the second game of this three-game series. The Orioles (50-104), who have eight games left, are 1-0 in this series and 1-3 on this six-game homestand.

They are 2-2 against Seattle, 5-14 in September and 24-55 at Oriole Park.

Left-hander Richard Bleier made his first career start, acting as an opener last night. He gave up a two-run homer to Kyle Lewis in the first inning. Bleier had made 159 major league relief appearances prior to the start. He became the 18th different player to make a start for the Orioles this season, the second-most in team history, trailing only the 1955 club who had 19 different starters. The 18 different starters are tied for the second-most in the majors this season (Angels, Rangers and Mariners) and trail only the Toronto Blue Jays (21).

Center fielder Austin Hays went 1-for-4 with an RBI groundout. He has hit safely in four straight games, hitting .429 (6-for-14). Hays is batting .500 (10-for-20) against right-handed pitching.

Left fielder Anthony Santander connected on his 20th home run, a three-run homer in the first inning. This was his sixth game with at least three RBIs and he has eight total RBIs in his last four games. First baseman Chris Davis singled in each of his first two plate appearances for his first multi-hit game since Aug. 1 versus Toronto.

Seattle (65-89) had its five-game winning streak snapped and falls to 33-46 on the road this season. Lewis hit the Mariners' 130th home run on the road. Seattle entered play with the third-most in the majors behind the Twins and Yankees, and the 130 road home runs are the second-most in club history, trailing only the 1997 Mariners (133).

The Orioles starter tonight is right-hander Asher Wojciechowski (3-8, 5.38 ERA), who will be making his 15th start. He has a WHIP of 1.319 and allows 8.8 hits per nine innings with 2.0 homers, 3.1 walks and 8.8 strikeouts.

He gave up two runs in five innings in his last start in Detroit. But in four starts since Aug. 28 his ERA is 7.50. In that span, he has walked two and fanned 12 over 18 innings allowing a .321 batting average and .836 OPS against.

Lefty batters hit .258 with an OPS of .926 against Wojciechowski and right-handers bat .238/.728. In eight home games, he is 1-4 with a 5.40 ERA and has yielded 10 homers over 35 innings.

Lefty Justus Sheffield (0-1, 5.40 ERA) will make his sixth start of 2019 for the Mariners. The 23-year-old Sheffield has been ranked in Baseball America's top 100 prospects lists at the end of the last four seasons. Seattle acquired him Nov. 19, 2018 in a trade that sent James Paxton to the New York Yankees.

Sheffield was ranked as New York's No. 3 prospect and No. 41 in the top 100 at the end of 2017. At the end of last season he was Seattle's No. 1 and overall No. 27.

For the year he has thrown 26 2/3 innings allowing 33 hits with 13 walks and 30 strikeouts. He gave up six runs over 4 1/3 in his last game against the Chicago White Sox in an 11-10 Seattle win. Over his previous two games, he had given up just one run over 11 innings.

Sheffield has thrown his four-seam fastball 50 percent of the time with an average velocity of 93.3 mph per BrooksBaseball.net. He throws his slider 38 percent at an average of 84.5 mph and his changeup 12 percent at 88 mph.