O's game blog: The offense starting to trend up

The Orioles' offense is trending up, and has been the case even before they scored 17 games over the last two games. It started when the Orioles scored six runs May 18 at Kansas City. Over the next four games they scored nine, eight, seven and eight runs. The Orioles scored 55 runs over a nine-game streak that began with that game against the Royals. They then scored just nine runs in a four-game stretch that included back-to-back losses with one run each at Houston. But now the Orioles have 17 runs on 29 hits in the last two games with three doubles and four homers. They are 9-for-22 (.409) with runners in scoring position. Adam Jones matched his career-high with four hits last night and Nelson Cruz hit a three-run homer. Jonathan Schoop is 5-for-8 over those two games, raising his average from .213 to .233. The Orioles have had a six-run inning in each of those games. If you add up all the games and runs I mentioned above, that is 81 runs in 15 games, or an average of 5.4 runs per game. This stat surprised me, but the Orioles have scored six or more runs in nine of their last 15 games. So maybe the offense is taking flight and this is probably the best two or three-week stretch of offense we've seen in 2014. Tonight in the second game of this series, Bud Norris (3-5, 4.04 ERA) faces rookie right-hander Nick Martinez (1-1, 2.75 ERA). Norris has given up four runs in three of his last four starts and is 1-3 with an ERA of 4.33 in that stretch. He is 1-4 with a 4.71 ERA in six road starts. Dating to last season, the Orioles have won six in a row against Texas, outscoring the Rangers 31-12.