O's game blog: Orioles go for the sweep against Tampa Bay

The Orioles go for their first three-game sweep against Tampa Bay on the road since April 1-3, 2011. This would be the O's third series sweep of the season, because going 2-0 in rain-shortened series against the Rays and Pirates does count. The Orioles lost six of their last seven games at the Trop last season and went 3-7 there on the year. A win tonight would give the O's a 9-4 record in American League East road games. They won just 15 of 38 AL East road games all of last season. The Orioles are 4-0 against the Rays on the season, outscoring Tampa Bay 19-7. The O's team ERA is 1.75 in those contests and Tampa has batting just .198 with a slugging percentage of .270 against Orioles pitchers. Tonight's pitching matchup features Ubaldo Jimenez (1-4, 5.19 ERA) against David Price (3-2, 4.44 ERA), the 2012 AL Cy Young Winner. The O's won two of the four games when Price started against them in 2013 and he was 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in those starts giving up 34 hits over 22 innings. Surprisingly, Price has allowed six earned runs twice in his last four starts, against both the Yankees and White Sox. While Price has a remarkable 33-to-3 strikeout-to-walks ratio in 27 innings in those four starts, his ERA is 5.67 and he's given up six homers. Nick Markakis will try to extend his hitting streak to 15 games tonight. He has batted .339 (19-for-56) during the streak. His career-best streak was 19 games from June 8-30, 2011. The O's improved to 7-3 in one-run games last night and they also ended Tampa Bay's 11-game win streak in one-run games dating to last Aug. 31 versus Oakland. For more on Caleb: Over the years, I have written many stories on or about Caleb Joseph. Here are a few for more background on the player that made his major league debut last night. Last June I wrote about Joseph playing yet again at Double-A and why the Orioles were not promoting him at that time. I also asked Bowie manager Gary Kendall about the big year Joseph was having. In this from last October, O's director of player development Brian Graham praised Joseph for his decision to play winter ball after last season and said his defense had improved enough for him to be in line for a big league shot. Earlier this spring, Joseph talked about trying to make an impression at camp.