O's game blog: Orioles face another solid starter today

After facing Jeff Samardzija, Sonny Gray, Jered Weaver, Hisashi Iwakuma and Felix Hernandez in recent days, maybe Orioles hitters will get a break and finally face a pitcher with a high ERA. Not today. Right-hander Chris Young (8-6, 3.22 ERA) gets the start this afternoon for the Mariners. He has allowed three or fewer earned runs for seven straight starts, pitching to an ERA of 2.45 in that time. The 35-year-old Young is 6-foot-10 and ties Randy Johnson as the tallest player in team history. Left-handed batters are hitting just .243 off him and right-handed batters are hitting just .187. Yeah, this guy looks real good on the stat sheet. Maybe the homer factor will help the Orioles today. Young has allowed 18 homers, tied for fourth in the AL and has given up six in his last four starts. The Orioles have hit 125 homers to tie with Toronto for the major league lead. The veteran was an All-Star in 2007 in San Diego and knows O's skipper Buck Showalter, who was his manager with Texas in 2004-05. Bud Norris (8-6, 3.78 ERA) will make his 17th start of the season, coming off an excellent outing in Anaheim. On Monday night, he held the high-scoring Angels to two runs (one earned) over 6 2/3 innings. Norris has pitched to an ERA of 2.37 over his past five starts. He allows just a .176 batting average on the year when pitching with runners in scoring position. The Orioles are trying to get to 13 games over .500 today for the first time since last August 11. With last night's win, the Orioles are 34-12 in extra innings games since 2012. Seattle (53-50) has lost four in a row and is 2-6 in the second half. The Mariners are 4-10 their past 14 games. The Orioles are going the other way with wins in 11 of the last 16 and 15 of 21 games. They are 31-22 on the road, and their .585 road win percentage is second in the American League to Detroit at .633. Since May 31, the O's are 16-7 in 23 road games, batting .262/.313/.443 with 37 homers, averaging 5.1 runs per game and pitching to a 3.17 ERA.