After very impressive game on offense, a nine-game road trip awaits for the Orioles

The Orioles scored 10 runs against Oakland in a key win on Sunday. The O's offense was really clicking in that game. They got a few things done on offense on Sunday: * Run aggressively on the bases. Check. * Make productive outs with good situational hitting. Check. * Get Nick Markakis' bat going again. Check. * Get some key hits with runners in scoring position. Check. * Throw in a few homers for good measure. Check. The Orioles won another series and they are 24-14-4 in series this year. They have won 57 percent of their series in 2013. Last season they won 58 percent. The Orioles are now 13-6 when they need to win the third and final game of a series to take the set after splitting the first two. With some very big series coming up, Nate McLouth was asked if taking two of three will be the key the rest of the way? "I don't know if that will be good enough," McLouth said. "We just have to play well. We played well this series. We got on a roll (Sunday) offensively and it's something we'll be looking to continue to do on this road trip." So what will it take to make the playoffs with 33 games to go? "What you saw today. That'll be a good start. To be 10 or 11 over .500 without a winning streak longer than five games is kind of odd. We've had losing streaks longer than our longest winning streak." McLouth is right about that as the O's longest losing streak of six games (May 14-20) is one game longer than their top win streak of five games (July 14-22). Now the O's get set to embark on a three-city road trip against three contending teams in Boston, New York and Cleveland. "The reason those games are so important is because each game is essentially a two-game swing in the standings," McLouth said. "Those games are huge because it's a two-game swing and they are real important." The Orioles still have hopes of catching Boston while at the same time they're competing with the Indians and Yankees for a wild card berth. To say the least the Orioles could do themselves a lot of good over these next nine games. The Orioles have won six of their last seven and nine of their last 11 series against the Red Sox, going 25-12 in their last 37 vs. the Sox. They are 3-1 since things looked pretty bleak when they lost the first two games of the Tampa series. This would be the perfect time to start a big finishing kick to reach the playoffs.