O's game blog: Looking for two in a row at The Trop

Behind Kevin Gausman and three relievers, the Orioles blanked Tampa Bay 5-0 last night to start their six-game road trip. Tonight they play the second game of the series at Tropicana Field.

The Orioles (48-51) will play their 100th game. They are 3 1/2 games out of the second wild card, which is held by Kansas City (51-47) right now. But there are seven teams, including Tampa Bay (51-49), within 3 1/2 games of that playoff spot.

Since going 0-3 versus the Chicago Cubs to start the second half, the Orioles are 6-2. They are 18-30 on the road and 6-4 against the Rays. The Orioles are 27-20 versus American League East teams. The Rays are 20-22 in division play.

The Rays lost three one-run games over the weekend against Texas and have now lost a season-high five games in a row. Tampa Bay is 27-23 at home and 9-9 in July. The Rays are 12-4-4 in their past 20 series.

O's lefty Wade Miley (4-8, 5.58 ERA) tonight makes his 20th start. He is looking to turn around a slide that started on June 7 and he has gone nine games without a quality start since that date.

Through June 1, Miley was 2-3 with a 2.82 ERA in the his season's first 11 starts. Since June 7, he is 2-5 with an ERA of 10.04 and has pitched 5 2/3 innings or less nine out of nine times. Over his past two starts, he's allowed 12 runs over 9 2/3 innings.

Lefty batters hit .200 with an OPS of .633 off Miley, while right-handed batters are hitting .319/.904. He yields a .300 average when pitching with runners in scoring position.

Right-hander Jacob Faria (4-1, 2.52 ERA) will make his ninth start for the Rays. He recorded seven consecutive quality starts to begin his major league career before that streak was snapped in his last game. On Wednesday at Oakland, he gave up a season-high four runs and six hits over five innings on 93 pitches.

But he has allowed two or fewer earned runs six times. By recording those seven quality starts to start his career, he tied Rolando Arrojo from 1998 with longest consecutive quality start run by a rookie in Tampa Bay team history. The Rays are 6-2 in his eight starts.

A 10th-round pick in the 2011 draft, Faria faced the Orioles in back-to-back starts June 24 and June 30. He is 0-0 with an ERA of 3.55 against the Orioles. In 12 2/3 innings, he has allowed nine hits and six runs (five earned).

Lefty batters hit just .189 off Faria and right-handers bat .228 while he gives up an average of .207 with RISP. All strong numbers for the 23-year-old from La Palma, Calif.

He throws a four-seam fastball 56 percent of the time with an average velocity of 92.24 mph. He throws a slider 24 percent, a changeup 16 percent and his curveball 4 percent of the time.

Winning ways on the farm recently, through Monday's games:

* Triple-A Norfolk has won five in a row and nine of 13.
* Double-A Bowie has won four of five and is in first place.
* Single-A Frederick has won seven of eight and eight of 10.
* Single-A Delmarva has won seven in a row and eight of nine games.

Now we can update that after some games this afternoon. Delmarva keeps rolling and completed a 7-0 road trip with a 2-1 win at Rome. The Shorebirds are in first place in the second half race at 19-12. The Shorebirds have not had a perfect extended road trip (two or more series) since at least 2005 when modern minor league baseball record keeping began.

Gerrion Grim's RBI double in the ninth scored Preston Palmeiro with the go-ahead run. Shorebirds starter Zach Muckenhirn gave up one run over five innings. Winning pitcher Steven Klimek threw two scoreless innings to get the win and is 5-1 with an ERA of 2.04. He has thrown 14 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

Short-season Single-A Aberdeen won 4-3 at Brooklyn. Mason McCoy went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Ben Breazeale was 2-for-4 with a double and is batting .419. Winning pitcher Nick Vespi allowed one run over four innings in relief.

The Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Orioles lost 8-5 to the Twins. The Orioles team in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League beat the Blue Jays 11-5 as Richard Barcenas drove in three runs. The DSL Orioles had 16 hits.