It's a bit of a stretch I know, but will some Jake Arrieta stats work in his favor tonight as he and the Orioles look to break an eight-game losing streak versus Cleveland?
Arrieta and the Birds lead 2-1 after the second inning after Matt Wieters and Nolan Reimold hit solo homers in the last of the second. Wieters' homer to right-center leading off the inning was his ninth and traveled 390 feet, and came on a 3-1 pitch. Reimold took a 1-1 pitch out to left 402 feet off Josh Tomlin.
For Cleveland, a Matt LaPorta two-out single in the second scored Grady Sizemore, who led off the frame with a double to left for a short-lived 1-0 Tribe lead.
Arrieta has won every one of his starts this year when pitching against a team from the American League Central. He is 5-0 with an ERA of 2.10 in five starts. He has two wins against Kansas City and one each against Chicago, Minnesota and Detroit.
Arrieta is 6-2 with an ERA of 4.12 in 10 career starts against the AL Central.
Also, he was a winner in his only previous start against Cleveland, even though he gave up six runs in six innings last August 10.
Maybe the Orioles will score some runs for him tonight as they have a few times this year. He receives the third-best run support this season in the American League at 6.84 runs per game.
The Orioles have scored nine or more runs five times this year and Arrieta has been on the mound for four of those games. They have scored seven or more runs in a game 12 times with Arrieta making six of those starts.
Meanwhile, Nick Markakis flied out his first time up tonight and he remains with 999 career hits. His next one will make him the 14th to get 1,000 hits in an O's uniform.
Markakis is batting .391 over his last 30 games and that is the second best average in baseball over that stretch, behind Jose Reyes at .392. Markakis has hits in 28 of those 30 games.
Update: The Orioles 2-1 lead didn't even last two batters into the top of the third as Asdrubal Cabrera just hit a two-run homer to left for a 3-2 Cleveland edge.
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