O's game blog: Orioles face Jake Arrieta in Wrigley Field series opener

For just the second time ever, the Orioles play at historic Wrigley Field today as they begin a three-game series against the Cubs. In the 2008 season, the Orioles went 2-1 at Wrigley, outscoring Chicago 22-16. The Orioles are 9-5 this season in interleague games, going 5-1 at home and 4-4 on the road. Kevin Gausman (7-4, 3.70 ERA) pitches against former Oriole Jake Arrieta (6-4, 2.61 ERA) this afternoon. Gausman is 3-1 with a 2.91 ERA in six road starts. The Orioles drafted Arrieta in the fifth round out of TCU in 2007 and he was ranked by Baseball America as the sport's No. 67 prospect in 2009 and No. 99 in 2010. But while he showed flashes of his talent with the Orioles, he never consistently put a season together like the one he is having in 2014. Ironically, he started this year on the disabled list with a right shoulder injury. But since his season debut on May 3, he has allowed two earned runs or less in 14 of 19 starts. Opposing batters are hitting just .209 against him. Arrieta went 20-25 with a 5.46 ERA as an Oriole. His WHIP was 1.47 with Baltimore and is 1.03 now. He averaged 4.0 walks per nine innings then, but is at 2.4 this season. The Orioles have been mashing some homers lately. They hit seven in their three-game sweep of the White Sox, hitting three each in the first and final games of that series. The O's have had a multi-homer game nine times in their last 15 games, hitting 30 homers total in the stretch and going 9-0 when hitting more than one homer during that stretch. Over his last four games, Steve Pearce is 7-for-18 with four doubles, two homers and three RBIs. Over his past 12 games, J.J. Hardy is batting .383 (18-for-47) with four doubles, three homers, 11 runs and 10 RBIs. In his last eight games, Jonathan Schoop is batting .286 (8-for-28) with three doubles, three homers and eight RBIs.