After playing .667 ball during homestand, O's hit the road again for the West Coast

The Orioles have two three-game sweeps in their past eight series. On the homestand that ended Wednesday afternoon, it was close to being four of the last eight.

They won the first two games against Colorado but did not sweep and won the first two by a combined 18-3 score against the Chicago White Sox but did not sweep. 

But they won all three series and went 6-3 on the homestand. As they headed for a flight to Phoenix after yesterday's game, their lead was two games over the Rays pending Tampa Bay's result last night. 

Their lead was two games when the homestand started. The Rays are playing good baseball right now, but so are the Orioles.

"I think you look at a 6-3 homestand, we won all three series, so never going to complain about that, you feel good about that," said Orioles' manager Brandon Hyde.

Yesterday's 10-5 loss was disappointing though as right-hander Kyle Gibson struggled again. And he was staked to a 4-0 lead after the first inning. Then Chicago outscored Baltimore 10-1 from the second inning on.

Gibson allowed seven runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings as White Sox batters consistently produced loud contact against him, and his ERA grew to 5.15.

"Just a lot of inconsistency," Gibson said. "I just didn't feel like, for as good as I felt warming up, even in the first inning, just didn't carry over. Just the month of August so far for me has been real inconsistent, not limiting damage. Offense did a great job getting runs early, and then giving right back there by not being able to make a pitch and get out of it, pretty frustrating."

Gibson had been a pitcher that did not give up many homers this year and now has allowed a season-high three home runs twice in his past four starts. In those four games, his ERA is 9.13 and he's allowed 36 hits in 22 2/3 innings with a 1.72 WHIP and 1.052 OPS against.

If the Orioles had to set a playoff rotation today, he could be on the outside looking in.

"I'm just going to sit down and try to take a look at it, see if there's something that stands out," Gibson said. "It's been just different outings. Some outings you execute a lot of pitches and give up hits, and today I felt like I didn't execute a whole lot and they took advantage of the ones I didn't execute. Maybe just a little bit of predictability, maybe just a little bit of looking too much into just being one side of the plate."

In nine second-half starts, Gibson has a 6.28 ERA.

That outing ended a real solid run by O's starting pitchers, who had an ERA of 2.52 the past 10 games and 3.64 the last 30. During the 30 games, the rotation had produced 26 starts where the pitcher allowed three earned runs or less.

But even in losing yesterday, the Orioles went 18-9 in August and are 29-15 in the second half. 

Anthony Santander had an RBI double and solo homer and that was his 26th homer of the year and his fifth in the last eight games.

In the series with Chicago, he went 6-for-13 with two doubles, two homers and nine RBIs. For the year he is batting .260 with an .825 OPS and 79 RBIs. As of the end of the game he ranked tied for seventh in the AL in homers and was 12th in OPS.

Santander has a nine-game hitting streak and is batting .417/.432/.917/.1.349 during this streak with three doubles, five homers and 14 RBIs. 

The Orioles offense scored 23 runs in the series against Chicago and has produced 79 runs the last 12 games.

Now, as the AL East two-team race at the top heads into the regular season's final month, the Orioles are headed back again to the West Coast. They were there two weeks ago and now are headed back for series with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Angels beginning tomorrow night.