O's game blog: Trying to salvage the series finale

This time, there was no series-opening win with a chance to finally win a series for the Orioles. They did that in recent series against Detroit, San Francisco, Texas and Toronto. They won the first game of a three-game set, only to lose the next two games.

This weekend, they've fallen 13-2 and 7-2 to the Red Sox, so this series is lost and they hope to salvage the third game today. Since winning a series on April 24, the Orioles are 0-14-1 in series play. On the year, they are 3-18-2 in 23 series.

They won the first two they played this season, taking series at Yankee Stadium and Rogers Centre. But they have one series win since early April.

They'll look to play a better, cleaner game today on defense and get some offense going in the series finale. They are 3-6 versus Boston, 10-22 in American League East games and 3-14 in home games within the division.

Boston (38-34) has won four in a row and six in a row on the road. They are 18-7 in their last 25 road games. Since September 2017, they are 8-0-2 the last 10 series versus the Orioles. They are 7-1-3 their past 11 series in Baltimore.

Now 21-49, the Orioles have lost four in a row, allowing 40 runs. They have lost eight of 10, 12 of 16 and 20 of the last 26 games. And they are 1-12 their last 13 AL East games.

Infielder Hanser Alberto went 2-for-3 off southpaw Chris Sale on Saturday to improve his league-leading average to .424 (36-for-85) against left-handed pitching. Over his past 10 games, Alberto is batting .372 (16-for-43) with 15 singles and one double.

Renato Núñez went 2-for-4 with an RBI double. Over his past 24 games, Núñez is batting .306 (26-for-85) with nine homers and 19 RBIs.

Lefty John Means (6-4, 2.60 ERA) gets the start today - it's his 16th appearance and 12th as a starter. Means has allowed one run in each of his past three starts with an ERA of 1.59. In 17 innings, he has allowed 11 hits with four walks and 19 strikeouts.

Means has yielded exactly one run in eight of his 11 starts and has four quality starts. The O's are 4-7 in his starts. Means has allowed two runs in 12 innings in a pair of 2019 starts against Boston. He's walked one with seven strikeouts in those games and Mookie Betts is 0-for-6 against him.