A look at home/road splits and playing time in left field

The Orioles are 4-3 with three games to go on this 10-game homestand. They host Oakland today in a split doubleheader at 1:05 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. after last night's rainout.

If they win two of three this weekend, the Orioles will have a winning homestand at 6-4. They have played much better this year at home than on the road. Taking a look at the stats, that has been more about pitching rather than offense.

* The Orioles are 11-4 at home with a team ERA of 2.82. They have hit .278 at home, slugging .446 with 18 homers and averaging 4.06 runs per game.

* The Orioles are 5-7 on the road with a team ERA of 4.63. They have hit .247 on the road, slugging .433 with 18 homers and averaging 4.42 runs per game.

In home games this year, Manny Machado is batting .426 with nine doubles, five homers, 13 RBIs, a slugging percentage of .820 and an OPS of 1.297. Among players with 30 or more home at-bats this year, that was the best average in the AL heading into Friday's games.

Atop the division: With Boston's 3-2 loss at New York last night, the Orioles move back into first place by a few percentage points over Boston. The Orioles are playing .593 ball (16-11) to .586 (17-12) for Boston.

Remember this?: It was four years ago yesterday that the Orioles won a wild, wacky and wonderful game (for them) at Boston's Fenway Park. It might have been the first real sign that the 2012 Orioles would be a playoff contender. Here is the game story from that game.

About left field: The Orioles have used five different players to start in left field this year, Joey Rickard leading the way with 13 starts there. He has also made six starts in center field and six in right field.

The O's are 6-7 with Rickard starting in left. They are 5-2 with Nolan Reimold there, 3-2 with Hyun Soo Kim and 1-0 each with Mark Trumbo and Ryan Flaherty.

Rickard's bat has clearly cooled. He was batting .350 on April 21. But he now has two hits over his last 16 at-bats. Over his past 12 games, he is batting just .159 (7-for-44). Included in that stretch was a three-run homer on April 27 at Tampa Bay off Matt Moore that helped win a game.

With Reimold batting .333 and Kim hitting .556 (10-for-18), some fans are wondering if Rickard will begin to start less and whether one of the others will begin to start more.

Manager Buck Showalter gave the young outfielder a public vote of confidence this week.

"Joey's been good," Showalter said. "Our players won't let him be bad. He's living the American dream. He's fine. We're real proud of him.

"When I see him starting to have those anxiety at-bats, that's when I'll kind of go ... But when he's still taking that walk late in the game (that's) 7-0, that's what I want to continue to see. Continue to be who he is.

"He'll make the adjustments. He's too athletic and too smart not to. The biggest thing about jumping up here is the quality of pitching day in and day out. You may see one guy in a three-game series in Triple-A that you go, 'OK, that's one of those.' Here, you see it every night."

Showalter is certainly loyal to his players and he will give them every chance to pull out of slumps. Should he stay with Rickard right now? If he starts to sit him more often would that hurt his confidence? Have Reimold and/or Kim done enough to warrant a bigger shot?

Farm notes: Triple-A Norfolk went to the seventh inning last night at Durham losing 7-1. But the Tides scored two in the seventh, three in the eighth, one in the ninth and two runs in the 10th inning for a stunning 9-7 comeback win. The game featured the first Triple-A home run for Trey Mancini. Sharlon Schoop (Jonathan's brother) hit two homers and drove in four runs. Christian Walker hit a two-run homer and Audry Perez had two RBIs.

Single-A Delmarva won 5-4 at Lexington. Ryan Mountcastle had a two-run double and Steve Laurino went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Starting pitcher Ofelky Peralta, a 19-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic, gave up just one run over five innings. In his last four starts, he has pitched to an ERA of 1.83 with 19 strikeouts in 19 2/3 innings. Patrick Baker got the win in relief and is 2-1 with a 1.56 ERA. Christian Turnipseed picked up his fifth save with two perfect innings to close it out.

Double-A Bowie was rained out at home against Erie and Single-A Frederick was rained out at Potomac.