A look at the O's recent run of quality starts

Even during two straight frustrating losses, the Orioles are continuing to get quality starts from their pitching staff. That trend, should it continue, would be very big for this club as the final two months of the season are about here. Some are not impressed with a quality start, which by definition is an outing where the pitcher goes six innings or more allowing three earned runs or less. That is a 4.50 ERA. But that is the minimum to get a quality start and most of the time, the pitcher does better than that. For instance, in recording seven consecutive quality starts, the Orioles' starters' ERA is 2.72. In recording 10 quality starts over the last 11 games, the starters' ERA is 3.11. That is well above the performance by O's starters for most of this season, and even with back-to-back tough losses, the team is 8-3 in this stretch. The starting pitching has stepped it up a notch and the O's need it to do that to get where they want to go. O's starters' ERA by month: * 4.55 in April * 5.08 in May * 4.74 in June * 3.98 in July Miguel Gonzalez takes the mound tonight with his own streak of eight straight quality starts on the line. He is 6-1 with an ERA of 2.35 in that time. His ERA is 1.40 over his past three starts. Yeah, he's been real good for this team this season. The O's play an important game tonight. A win would give them a 5-2 road trip heading into the big weekend series with Boston. Getting quality starts won't lead to wins every night, but it will most of the time, enough perhaps for the O's to get a 2013 playoff berth. The search for another quality start resumes shortly in Kansas City.