Homestand continues with visit from Mariners (updated)

The Seattle Mariners are in town for a three-game series, giving Orioles fans a chance to welcome back Baltimore native Steve Johnson and one-year crush Nelson Cruz.

Johnson has allowed one run and two hits over five inning in his four appearances since the Mariners purchased his contract from Triple-A Tacoma. He earned the win in his last appearance on May 11, shutting out the Rays over 1 2/3 innings.

Cruz is batting .265/.363/.477 with seven doubles, seven home runs and 21 RBIs in 36 games.

Update: My bad for skipping Steve Clevenger, the Pride of Pigtown, who's also returning to Camden Yards. He's 6-for-32 with a home run in 10 games.

The Orioles are 16-6 at home and the Mariners are 13-6 on the road. Seattle was swept at home by the Angels over the weekend to fall out of first place in the American League West.

The Orioles led the majors with 55 home runs before last night's games and the Mariners ranked fourth with 50. The Mariners' pitching staff ranked sixth with a 3.37 ERA and the Orioles ranked eighth at 3.53. Orioles relievers were first with a 2.32 ERA and the Mariners were sixth at 2.92.

The clubs split six games last season, with the Orioles taking two of three in Baltimore. Tyler Wilson made his major league debut with an inning of relief on May 20. He starts Thursday afternoon in the series finale.

Ubaldo Jimenez is fighting to gain a semblance of consistency

Jimenez allowed one earned run over seven innings in his first start and followed it up by allowing four runs in five innings. He went from no walks and nine strikeouts to four walks and five strikeouts.

His last four starts have gone as follows:

April 26 vs. Rays: three runs in six innings
May 1 vs. White Sox: six runs in 4 2/3 innings
May 7 vs. Athletics: two runs in eight innings
May 12 vs. Tigers: four earned runs (five total) in five innings

In Jimenez's last three starts, he's walked four and struck out three, walked one and struck out six, and walked four and struck out two.

The Orioles are counting on Jimenez to revert back to his first-half form in 2015, when he went 7-4 with a 2.81 ERA in 17 starts. He was 5-6 with a 5.63 ERA in the second half.

Jimenez is 2-1 with a 4.02 ERA in five career starts against the Mariners. He hasn't faced them since 2013, going 0-1 with a 3.38 ERA in two outings.

Robinson Cano is 6-for-11 with two doubles and two home runs lifetime against Jimenez. Cruz is 0-for-12 with nine strikeouts.

For whatever reason, Jimenez's splits are spun in the other direction. Left-handers batted .227 against him last season and have a .240 average over his career, but they're batting .371 against him this year.

Wade Miley would like to spin his track record against the Orioles. He's 0-2 with a 10.13 ERA in three career starts and 0-2 with a 15.63 ERA in two starts at Camden Yards.

The Orioles have torched him for 15 earned runs (16 total) and 21 hits over 13 1/3 innings. He's allowed 11 earned runs (12 total) and 14 hits in 6 1/3 innings at Camden Yards.

Manny Machado is 3-for-7 with a home runs against Miley and Adam Jones is 2-for-6 with a double and home run.

Machado has 26 extra-base hits (15 doubles, 11 home runs) and 30 runs scored in 36 games this season.

Jones is batting .441/.472/.853 (15-for-34) with two doubles, four home runs, 10 RBIs and 10 runs scored during an eight-game hitting streak. He's knocked in at least one run in six consecutive games, tying the second-longest streak of his career.

Jonathan Schoop is batting .333/.354/.587 (21-for-63) in his last 17 games, including two doubles, a triple, four home runs and 14 RBIs. He's logged three multi-RBI games over the last four.

Reliever Mychal Givens has struck out 25 batters in 15 appearances over 16 innings. He's averaging 14.06 strikeouts per nine innings.