A look at the Orioles' recent struggles with runners in scoring position

Sometimes you get the clutch hits and sometimes you don't. Recently for the Orioles, they don't.

They went hitless with runners in scoring position in last night's loss at Minnesota. But heading in to the night, the Orioles topped major league baseball in batting average with RISP:

.306 - Orioles
.301 - Toronto and Colorado

But last night, the Orioles went 0-for-8 in RISP situations, and they are 4-for-42 over the last six games. Their four hits all came in one game, Sunday's 9-1 win at the Chicago White Sox. In the other five games over that stretch, they are 0-for-24 with RISP.

You wonder what makes the team good some nights and so bad some others in those clutch situations. Last night they had first and second with one out in the third and didn't score. They also didn't score with second and third and one out in the sixth and with first and third and one in the seventh.

The Twins also went hitless in those spots as well - going 0-4 with RISP - but they hit three homers to the Orioles' two and got the walk-off win.

The Orioles have gone 2-4 during a six-game stretch where their starting pitchers have worked to an ERA of 1.85 over that span. Yep, that hurts.

More notes on the Orioles:

* O's starters have recorded five quality starts over the last six games and they have allowed two earned runs or less in each of the games.

* The Orioles are now 1-2 in extra-inning games while Minnesota is 4-3.

* Wei-Yin Chen gave up two runs over seven innings last night. In his past six starts, he is 3-0 with an ERA of 2.23 and five quality starts. Over 40 1/3 innings, he has walked 10 and fanned 35. Chen has allowed two earned runs or less in 12 of 16 starts.

* The Orioles are 7-12 in games decided by two runs.

* Per a stat from MASN's "O's Xtra", the Orioles are tied with Milwaukee in allowing 18 homers with two strikes on a hitter to lead the majors.

* Manny Machado's homer in the first inning last night was his 18th on the year, tying Chris Davis for the team lead. Machado is slugging .531 with an OPS of .891. That was his fourth leadoff homer as he also hit one on May 11 against Toronto, June 16 versus Philadelphia and June 18 at Philadelphia. Machado has hit 11 homers at home and seven on the road.

* The Twins are 10-4 against the AL East, going 5-2 against Boston, 2-1 versus Tampa Bay and Toronto and 1-0 against the Orioles.