A few stats and notes on Trumbo, the starters, Britton's record and more

I guess you can't predict baseball. The last two nights, the last-place Twins have beaten Boston while the the Orioles have beaten first-place Cleveland.

The Orioles are back on top of the American League East and their lead is now 1 ½ games over Boston and three over Toronto. Cleveland came to Baltimore with the best record in the American League. Now they share that honor with the Orioles as both are 56-40.

Mark Trumbo hit his 30th homer in last night's 5-2 win and it came in the first inning. Before Friday, Trumbo had not homered this year in the opening inning and now he has done so in back-to-back games. He has helped the Orioles to 3-0 leads after the first innings in both games of this series.

Trumbo now has three seasons of 30 or more homers. He hit 32 home runs in 2012 and 34 in 2013 as a member of the Los Angeles Angels. For the sixth time this season he has homered in consecutive games.

According to STATS, LLC., his 30 home runs are tied for sixth-most in Orioles history for a player in his first season with the team. The last player with at least 30 home runs in his first season with the Orioles was Nelson Cruz in 2014 when he hit 40.

O's catcher Caleb Joseph has three consecutive multi-hit games, going 6-for-10 in that stretch. He still doesn't have a homer or RBI in 94 at-bats, but these last three games has raised his average from .155 to .202.

Since the end of their four-game losing streak, the Orioles have won three in a row by a combined 14-4 score. That is pretty good pitching in those games where the O's starters allowed just one earned run over 19 innings from Chris Tillman, Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman.

Meanwhile, O's closer Zach Britton tied a major league record last night but he didn't even know until informed by the club's public relations staff after the game. Britton got a save to go 32-for-32 in save chances.

According to STATS, LLC., Britton tied the longest save streak in as many chances to start a season by a left-handed pitcher in Major League history. The mark was first set by Willie Hernandez for the 1984 Detroit Tigers.

Britton was almost a bit sheepish about doing so with a one-out save. He has had so many full-inning saves this year but last night got No. 32 on four pitches.

"I mean obviously the one-out ones, you can say whatever you want about those, but it's been pretty good," Britton said. "Just trying to roll with it and not really think about what is going on. Just stay in the moment. That has helped me so far. Maybe in the offseason I can think about it (the MLB record) a little more, but right now trying to win some games and help the team any way I can."

He recorded his 105th career save Saturday and Britton is now tied with Tippy Martinez for third place on the Orioles all-time saves list. Britton has not surrendered an earned run over his last 33 appearances and 31 2/3 innings since May 5.

When this series began, Cleveland was averaging 5.02 runs per game for the season, to rank second in the AL and fifth in the majors. But the last two games, O's first-round draft picks Bundy and Gausman have pitched 12 innings, allowing nine hits and one unearned with three walks and 12 strikeouts.

It is part of a larger recent trend of better Orioles starting pitching. Over the last 11 games, the rotation ERA is 2.94. That has lowered the mark for the season from 5.23 to 4.95. It is a small victory for now, but the O's during this time moved from 14th to 12th in the AL in rotation ERA. For the moment they are trending in the right direction and two O's top picks are the latest to get the job done.