O's game blog: Orioles week in New York begins tonight at Citi Field

The Orioles begin interleague play tonight starting a two-game series at Citi Field against the New York Mets. It is the first of 20 games the Orioles will play against National League opponents. It is also the start of a six-day stretch of games for the team in New York. The O's play four against the Yankees after this series.

For years, the O's struggled in interleague play, but since 2008 they have a winning record in five of their last seven seasons against NL opponents. They went 11-9 in 2013 and 12-8 in 2014, their most wins in one year against the NL.

The Mets are 16-10 and leading the NL East by 3 1/2 games over Washington. After a sizzling 13-3 start to 2015, the Mets are 3-7 since then and have lost five of their last six games. The Mets are 11-3 at home.

They have gone scoreless their last 18 innings, losing two straight 1-0 games to the Nationals on Saturday and Sunday. The Mets' 3.01 team ERA ranks third in the NL.

The last two times the Orioles played the Mets, they got swept by New York in three-game series in 2010 and 2012, and they are 9-19 all-time against the Mets.

Here is a stat the O's need to start improving, which could begin tonight: They are just 2-6 in series-opening games.

Orioles team pitching this year by opponent ERA:
* 0.00 against Chicago White Sox
* 2.21 against Tampa Bay
* 3.43 against Boston
* 4.33 against New York
* 8.29 against Toronto

The Orioles are 1-5 versus the Blue Jays and 11-6 with an ERA of 2.95 against everyone else.

On the mound tonight, Bud Norris (1-2, 12.18 ERA) faces 41-year-old right-hander Bartolo Colon (4-1, 3.341 ERA).

Colon has recorded four quality starts this year and has issued just one walk with 25 strikeouts over 32 2/3 innings. He has now gone 26 2/3 innings since his last walk.

Norris took an ERA of 17.42 into his last start on Sunday, April 26 against Boston but took a shutout into the seventh before giving up a three-run homer. Still, it was a big improvement and provided some hope that he has begun to turn it around. Norris has allowed an average of .412 this year with runners in scoring position. Last year, he was among the major league leaders in that stat, giving up an average of just .173.

The Orioles today announced that Single-A Frederick's Drew Dosch has been named minor league Player of the Month for April and Double-A Bowie pitcher Mychal Givens was named Pitcher of the Month.

In 21 games, Dosch hit .291 with five doubles, two triples, a homer and 18 RBIs. He had an OPS of .803 in the month. Dosch won this same award last July when he hit .364 for Single-A Delmarva. He currently leads the Carolina League with 19 RBIs.

A right-hander, Givens went 2-0 with an ERA of 0.71 in seven Bowie games. Over 12 2/3 innings, he allowed just seven hits, with four walks, 19 strikeouts and an 0.87 WHIP in April.

All four full-season O's minor league teams have winning records:
* Norfolk is 13-12.
* Bowie is 14-10.
* Frederick is 13-12.
* Delmarva is 15-9.

Norfolk activated catcher Steve Clevenger from the disabled list and sent catcher Rossmel Perez to Bowie. Als,o left-hander Daniel Rodriguez has been reinstated from the Norfolk DL and assigned on loan to Saltillo of the Mexican League.