O's game blog: O's looking to end losing streak (O's won 13-11 in 13)

The Orioles will try to put a stop to a four-game losing streak and a winless road trip tonight. They play at Detroit to start a three-game series.

The Orioles are 22-14 and the four consecutive losses all came by one run. They are 0-4 on a road trip that begin in Washington, went to Kansas City and now will end Thursday in Detroit. The Tigers are 18-18 overall, 9-7 at home and are 4-6 their past 10 games.

On the mound tonight, it's a matchup of left-handers. Wade Miley (1-1, 2.45 ERA) gets the start for Baltimore and Matthew Boyd (2-3, 3.89 ERA) for Detroit.

Miley ranks eighth in the American League in ERA (Dylan Bundy is sixth), is tied for the third-most walks with 23 and is tied for 18th with 43 strikeouts. He has allowed two earned runs or less in six of his seven starts. He has three quality starts and the Orioles are 4-3 in his starts.

The 26-year-old Boyd has a 1.449 WHIP and walks 4.3 per batters every nine innings with 6.6 strikeouts. His fastball velocity averages 92 mph and he throws his two-seam sinker 24 percent of the time and his changeup 26 percent. Boyd has recorded quality starts in five of his past six games since allowing five runs over 2 2/3 innings in his first 2017 start. In three home games, he is 1-1 with a 2.61 ERA.

With the Orioles at 36 games into the season, let's see where they rank among other teams in the AL in several stat categories. Each ranking is listed from most/best to least/worst. In other words, being tied for first in walks in the AL means they have walked the most, not the least batters. So that stat needs work.

Batting average: .254 (fifth)
Runs: 162 (eighth)
OBP: .314 (ninth)
Slugging: .418 (third)
OPS: .732 (sixth)
Homers: 48 (sixth)
Batting strikeouts: 315 (sixth)
Team ERA: 4.07 (10th)
Starter ERA: 4.22 (seventh)
Bullpen ERA: 3.86 (sixth)
Strikeouts: 267 (13th)
Walks: 138 (tied for first)
Quality starts: 18 (fifth)
Batting average against: .262 (15th)

So the Orioles are allowing the highest batting average against and most walks in the AL. Makes you wonder how their team ERA is not higher than 10th. But they have allowed an average against of just .232 when pitching with runners in scoring position and that has been big. And on offense, the Orioles are batting .305 with RISP and that ranks first in the league with Houston next at .301 and Boston third at .290. They are doing even better over the last eight games, batting .367 with RISP.

While the O's offense has scored three runs or less 16 times this year - including twice in Kansas City - the offense has produced 83 runs over the last 16 games. That is an average of 5.2 per game. The Orioles are 8-8 in those 16 games.

Batter notes:

* In his last 12 games, Adam Jones is batting .176 (9-for-51).

* Manny Machado has homered five times his last 13 games, but went 2-for-12 over the weekend. He has struck out eight times his past five games.

* Jonathan Schoop is batting .214 with an OPS of .631 versus lefty pitchers and is hitting .325/.927 against right-handers. In road games, Schoop is batting .308/.829.

* Seth Smith is batting .429 (12-for-28) his past eight games.

* Mark Trumbo has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, batting .317 (13-for-41) with two homers and five RBIs.