O's game blog: It's Chen against Elias at Camden Yards

The Orioles have had just one three-game winning streak this year and have not won more than three straight. They shoot for a third straight victory tonight when they host Seattle in the middle game of this three-game series.

A win would improve the Orioles to 18-19 for the year and to 8-9 in May.

After scoring five runs total on just 15 hits in three games over the weekend against the Angels, the O's offense broke out last night for nine runs on 13 hits. That was the 12th game this season in which the Orioles registered at least 10 hits. In those 12 games, the Orioles are 7-5.

Manny Machado matched his single-game career high for the second time with two stolen bases in the series opener (also May 6, 2015 at the New York Mets). He now has stolen a single-season career-high seven bases, surpassing his previous career high of six from 2013. Machado is 7-for-8 (87.5 percent) in stolen base attempts this season.

On the mound tonight Wei-Yin Chen (1-2, 2.53 ERA) faces 26-year-old left-hander Roenis Elias (0-1, 3.24 ERA).

Chen ranks 10th in the American League in ERA, has allowed two earned runs or less for six straight starts, pitching to an ERA of 2.11 in that time, and has an ERA of 1.93 over his past two starts.

Chen has recorded four consecutive quality starts and has pitched seven or more innings in three of his past four outings, pitching a total of 28 innings in that span with six walks and 23 strikeouts.

Opponent batters are hitting just .071 (2-for-28) when facing Chen this year with runners in scoring position.

Elias began the year at Triple-A, going 2-0 with an 8.04 ERA in three starts. But now he has made three straight quality starts for Seattle. In his last start on Thursday versus Boston, he gave up just one run over 6 1/3 innings.

But he has gotten little run support. The Mariners have scored nine runs total in his four starts and are 0-4 in those games.

Last night's attendance was 19,494. The 20-date (17-game) season total is 527,224 with an average attendance of 26,361.

Jimmy Paredes drove in four runs for the Orioles in Tuesday's win, giving him a total of 22 RBIs in 25 games this season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he's the first Oriole since Jim Traber to have at least 20 RBIs in his first 25 games of a season after previously never having had a 20-RBI season in the majors. Traber had 22 RBIs through 25 games as a rookie in 1986.