O's game blog: The series opener at Washington

Out to break a four-game losing streak after being swept by the Miami Marlins, the Orioles (5-7) hit the road tonight for the start of a three-game series at Washington. The Nationals (4-5) host the Birds tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon at Nats Park.

After scoring just one run in losing the first three games of the series against Miami, O's batters hit four homers last night in an 8-7 loss. Renato Núñez hit his third and fourth homers, producing his third career multi-homer game and first since June 29 versus Cleveland. He has homered four times his past six games. Núñez is in a group of 10 players tied for second in the American League with four home runs. New York's Aaron Judge leads the league with seven.

The Orioles and Nationals have been playing each other since 2006 (they didn't meet in the Nats' first year of 2005), and in that time the Orioles have lost the season series just twice. They are 7-2-5 with seven season-series wins, two losses and five ties. They tied last year, splitting four games. In 2018, the Nats won the series, 5-1. All-time the Orioles hold a 42-34 edge and the O's are 19-18 at Nats Park.

Lefty Tommy Milone (0-1, 5.63 ERA), who was drafted in round 10 by the Nationals in 2008, faces that team tonight to open the series. On Saturday Milone threw a strong game for the Orioles against Tampa Bay, allowing six hits and one run over five innings. He did not walk a batter and fanned eight, throwing 83 pitches. On the year he has walked three and fanned 13 over eight innings. That is a strikeout rate of 14.6 in two games for a pitcher who fanned 7.6 per nine last season with Seattle and has a career strikeout rate of 6.7.

In 2020, lefty batters hit .333 (3-for-9) off Milone and right-handers are batting .292 (7-for-24). He has allowed four hits in nine at-bats (.444) when pitching with runners in scoring position.

Milone has thrown his fastball 42 percent of the time at an average speed of 86.2 mph. He is throwing his changeup 39 percent and his slider 16 percent. In two career games versus the Nationals, Milone is 1-0 with an ERA of 0.73. He's allowed eight hits and one run over 12 1/3 innings.

Right-hander Aníbal Sánchez (0-1, 7.20 ERA) will make his second start and is pitching on 10 days' rest. On July 27 versus Toronto he gave up six hits and four runs, on four solo homers, in five innings. He threw 88 pitches, 56 for strikes.

Sánchez was solid in 2019 as the Nationals won the World Series. He went 11-8 with a 3.85 ERA in 30 starts, and the team went 17-13 in those games. He produced a 1.271 WHIP, walked 3.1 per nine innings with 7.3 strikeouts. Over his last 21 starts, he was 11-2 with a 3.42 ERA.

In 2019 he threw his fastball 35 percent of the time at a velocity that averaged 90.5 mph. He added his splitter 28 percent and a cutter 27.5 percent of the time.

Nationals relievers have combined to inherit 17 runners this season and none of them have come around to score. They join the Minnesota Twins as the only clubs to not allow an inherited runner to score. Washington's bullpen ranks fourth in the majors with a 1.53 ERA. Their bullpen has recorded scoreless relief in four of the eight games called upon.

The Orioles are 2-1 in road games and 1-0 in road series. Tonight they play their first road game since July 26 at Boston. Washington is 2-5 at home and 0-2-1 in home series.

Odds of reaching the postseason, American League
Twins - 99.9%
Athletics - 99.2%
Yankees - 98.6%
Indians - 97.7%
Astros - 96.6%
Rays - 66.2%
White Sox - 62.9%
Blue Jays - 50.2%
Red Sox - 44.8%
Angels - 24.1%
Orioles - 16.2%
Mariners - 14.9%
Royals - 11.0%
Rangers - 10.4%
Tigers - 7.3%

-- Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) August 7, 2020