A look at the O's offense against the A's and Oakland's Jarrod Parker

The Oakland A's have one of the better pitching staffs in the American League with a team ERA of 3.62, which is third-best in the AL, and a batting average against of .242, which ranks second. But in five games this season, the Orioles are batting .298 with 37 runs and 54 hits off Oakland pitchers. The O's have gone 20-for-57 (.351) with runners in scoring position against the Athletics and went 5-for-14 with RISP in a 9-7 win last night. That was against an Oakland staff that came into last night allowing two or fewer runs in five of its past 10 games with a team ERA of 2.93 in the stretch. In taking four of five games against Oakland this year, the Orioles have outscored the A's 37-21 and with last night's win, they clinched their first season series win against Oakland since 1998. Since some fans gets nervous when we point out positive O's stats at times (you know that whole jinx thing), here is one for Oakland - today's Oakland starter, right-hander Jarrod Parker, has not lost since May 22 against Texas. He is 7-0 with an ERA of 2.59 and a .204 batting average against over his last 15 starts. That ties him for the third-longest unbeaten streak in team history and is the longest by an Athletics pitcher since Dan Haren had a 16-start streak without a loss from April 13-July 1, 2007. By the way, the Oakland record is 17 consecutive unbeaten starts by Catfish Hunter from June 2-Sept. 3, 1973. That can't go on much longer, can it? Trip down memory lane: Longtime O's fans may remember this and it happened 30 years ago today. Tippy Martinez picked three runners off first base in the top of the 10th against the Toronto Blue Jays. He got Barry Bonnell, Dave Collins and Willie Upshaw. Current O's acting bullpen coach Scott McGregor was starting pitcher that day. Infielder Lenn Sakata was catching in the 10th that night. The Orioles won that game, 7-4 over Toronto.