O's game blog: Orioles own longest in-season win streak against Boston since 1961

We start with a great note today courtesy of Orioles public relations and Elias Sports Bureau: Tuesday night's 6-4 win at Fenway Park marked the Orioles' sixth consecutive victory over the Red Sox, all coming this season. It is the first time since 1961 that the Orioles have won six consecutive games against the Red Sox within one season. The O's won seven straight in 1961.

Meanwhile, the Orioles have been winning a lot lately, but they have been doing so without getting a lot of innings from their starting pitchers. That is a trend that the Orioles will need to turn around so as not to tax a bullpen that has been among the game's best since late April.

There was a stretch in May where the O's rotation was doing a great job of eating innings. In a 17-game stretch from May 13-30, O's starters went seven innings or more 11 times.

But in the 22 games since, an O's starter has gone seven innings or more just once. Over the last 16 games, the O's starters failed to pitch even six innings 12 times. Yet the Orioles are 12-4 in those games.

More recently, O's starters have pitched 1 1/3, five, 1 1/3 and five innings in the last four games. The starters' ERA is 10.66 in that stretch, yet the team is 3-1.

The Orioles have obviously done a great job overcoming the shorter starts for the rotation with a resurgent offense, an excellent defense and lights-out bullpen.

But at some point - and they hope pretty soon - the starters need to begin to pitch deeper in the games again. Manager Buck Showalter handles the bullpen as well as any skipper and he's kept them fresh enough to keep them humming along. He'd love to see his starters make that task less challenging.

Meanwhile, the Orioles' offense was pretty special in April, pretty mediocre in May and pretty special again in June.

April: .286 avg., .345 OBP, .482 slugging and 5.6 runs/game
May: .231 avg., .287 OBP, .358 slugging and 3.3 runs/game
June: .275 avg., .328 OBP, .456 slugging and 5.5 runs/game

In winning their last three games against Toronto and Boston, the Orioles have produced 37 hits, hit a .336 team average, scored 24 runs and hit .500 (16-for-32) with runners in scoring position.

Heading into tonight's game, the Orioles have won three in a row, six of eight, 12 of 15 and 14 of their last 18 games since June 3 when they were 23-29.

The Red Sox are in last place at 31-41, with 10 losses in 14 games and a record of 10-22 versus the American League East. But Boston's offense has produced 44 runs the last seven games and 70 in their past 12 games, an average of 5.8 per game.

Tonight's starters are Bud Norris (2-5, 7.57 ERA) and Clay Buchholz (4-6, 3.87 ERA). Norris' ERA was 12.18 in April, 6.10 in May and 3.78 in three June starts. In six career starts versus Boston, he is 2-2 with a 3.52 ERA. In his last two starts, he is 2-0 with an ERA of 1.84 against Boston.

Triple-A Norfolk's Tyler Wilson pitched seven scoreless innings today as the Tides beat Columbus 5-4 in 12 innings. It was his first start since being optioned by the Orioles. Over his last three games - two of them at the major league level - Wilson has allowed just one run over 16 innings.