O's game blog: The final series of the year begins

The Orioles (75-84) begin their final series of the season at Tropicana Field tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays (77-82). The Rays begin the series in third place, two games ahead of the Orioles and Blue Jays. The Orioles would need a three-game sweep to finish ahead of Tampa Bay in the final standings.

Before Thursday's off-day, the Orioles lost by scores of 10-1 and 5-3 at Pittsburgh. They have lost four of their last five and 16 of 20 games. The Orioles are 29-49 in road games and are 6-16-4 in road series in 2017.

Tampa Bay beat the Yankees 9-6 last night. But the Rays are going to have a losing record for the fourth consecutive season. Prior to this, the Rays had a streak of six straight winning seasons from 2008 to 2013, including four postseason appearances. Prior to becoming the Rays in 2008, the franchise had 10 straight losing seasons as the Devil Rays from 1998 to 2007.

The Rays have allowed six runs or more five straight games for the first time since Sept. 8-14, 2006. The first two games of this stretch were the last two of a four-game series last weekend at Baltimore, where the Orioles scored 15 runs combined on Saturday and Sunday. The clubs split that series and have split 16 games this year.

Tampa Bay is 10-14 in September and 30-39 since the All-Star break. The Rays are 32-41 in American League East games and 45-41 in games outside of the division.

AL East teams' records against division opponents in 2017:
.575 - New York (42-31)
.534 - Boston (41-35)
.507 - Orioles (37-36)
.438 - Tampa Bay and Toronto (32-41)

Left-hander Wade Miley (8-14, 5.52) will make his 32nd start of the season, that is the second most starts behind Kevin Gausman's 33. It may be hard to remember now, but Miley's ERA was 2.82 in early June, and that was then fifth-best in the AL.

But over his last three starts Miley is 0-3 with a 13.94 ERA, and he's allowed 16 runs in 10 1/3 innings. Miley is averaging 5.2 walks per nine innings this year, and that is the highest mark of his career. He averaged 3.0 walks per nine in 2015 and 2.7 last season.

Miley is 0-2 with a 4.85 ERA in two starts on the season against Tampa Bay. In 11 career games, he is 4-4 with a 3.03 ERA versus the Rays.

Right-hander Jake Odorizzi (10-8, 4.26 ERA) will be making his 28th start. In 11 second-half starts, he is 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA. In four starts this month, he is 3-1 with a 1.21 ERA.

In three 2017 starts against Baltimore, Odorizzi is 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA. Over his career, he's faced the Birds 17 times (16 starts), going 5-4 with a 4.92 ERA and 1.405 WHIP. The Rays are 12-15 in his starts this season.