Miguel Gonzalez trying to follow Tyler Wilson's lead

The West Coast trip is off to a good start, with the Orioles scoring the first six runs last night in a 9-2 victory over the Athletics.

The Orioles have won eight of their last 10 games. They're tied with the Blue Jays and Twins for the second wild card and trail the Yankees by 5 1/2 games in the American League East.

Still not selling.

It was just a typical night for the Orioles with Tyler Wilson getting the win and Mychal Givens retiring all four batters he faced with three strikeouts. I'm sure you saw it coming back in March.

As a parting gift, Wilson is expected to get a return ticket to Triple-A Norfolk. Left-hander T.J. McFarland joins the bullpen.

Miguel Gonzalez will try again to become the Orioles' first 10-game winner this season. In his last start, he allowed five runs and 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings against the Tigers in a 9-8 loss.

Gonzalez hasn't given the Orioles much length over his last eight starts, working 4 1/3, five, 4 1/3, six, five, five, 7 2/3 and 3 1/3 innings. He was 2-1 with a 3.42 ERA in four April starts, 3-2 with a 3.52 ERA in six May starts, 1-2 with a 5.75 ERA in four June starts and 3-2 with a 5.00 ERA in five July starts.

In his nine wins, Gonzalez has posted a 2.48 ERA in 58 innings. In his seven losses, he's posted an 8.45 ERA in 33 innings. In three no-decisions, he's posted a 2.45 ERA in 18 1/3 innings.

Gonzalez is 3-3 with a 4.61 ERA in nine home starts and 6-4 with a 3.97 ERA in 10 road starts.

Gonzalez is 0-0 with a 5.68 ERA in two career games (one start) against the Athletics, with four runs allowed in 6 1/3 innings. In his lone start, he allowed four runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings in Oakland.

Brett Lawrie is 2-for-18 and Billy Butler is 1-for-11 against Gonzalez.

Former Oriole Danny Valencia, expected in uniform tonight for the A's, is 0-for-4 against Gonzalez. He's 2-for-4 against Brian Matusz, but 3-for-13 vs. Zach Britton, 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against Brad Brach and 0-for-2 with two strikeouts against Darren O'Day.

The Orioles have never faced Athletics right-hander Chris Bassitt, who's 0-4 with a 3.10 ERA in 10 games, including five starts. He's never faced a current member of the team. It's like Match.com, but without having to pretend that you're having a good time or plotting an escape route.

Bassitt is making his 11th major league start and 17th appearance. He was 1-1 with a 3.94 ERA in six games (five starts) with the White Sox last season before they included him in the trade package for Jeff Samardzija.

Matt Wieters will move behind the plate tonight after going 0-for-5 last night as the designated hitter. He's 3-for-24 in the DH role this season.

Shortstop J.J. Hardy will play in his 77th game tonight. He's committed only one error.

Hardy made a diving stop up the middle and throw to record an out on Sunday, and he had three outstanding plays in the first four innings last night, including a nifty backhanded stop and throw in the fourth to retire Stephen Vogt. But most of his excellence comes from subtle moves that can go unnoticed. Playing a short-hop cleanly or applying a tag at second base where he swipes down at a ball that kicks off the dirt to save precious seconds.

"We consider J.J. very flashy," said manager Buck Showalter. "His ability to make those plays without drawing any attention to you. He got an in between hop (Saturday) night that eats a lot of guys up and nobody even noticed. I guarantee you. And the impact he has on Jonathan (Schoop), for instance. Jonathan's doing things the way J.J. does them."

Showalter is on a roll now. Hardy is one of his favorite topics.

"He's just solid," Showalter said. "He was talking the other day about how many steps he had taken on a fly ball where the left field he knows is usually there if he takes X number of steps. He was talking about infield depths and who will run at a certain depth. I could go into a whole chapter of things people don't get. We were talking about the double that Rajai Davis hit and the throw (Gerardo) Parra made to him, and all the registration of what he can do with him throwing the ball to him compared to somebody else, the depth. All of a sudden his clock is registering, 'The next time that happens, where do I go?' How deep do I go?'"

Hardy's produced some clutch hits for the Orioles this season - he was batting .309 with runners in scoring position prior to last night - but he had a .237/.267/.344 slash line with seven home runs and 29 RBIs in 270 at-bats before collecting two hits in the series opener. It doesn't matter to Showalter, who recognizes Hardy's value on a nightly basis.

"Through thick and thin offensively, he contributes every night," Showalter said.

Hardy began the season on the disabled list and wasn't activated until May 7.

"We missed him. It seemed like an eternity," Showalter said. "I think he's learned to kind of pace certain things. He knows how much he's counted on. Sometimes, you live to fight another day. Everybody gets to the end game. J.J., it works for him. He's not into trying to show everybody how easy it is for him. He doesn't care about that. When he throws the ball around the infield, it looks like he's not even going to be able to get it to the third baseman. He's saving his bullets.

"I asked him the other day, 'At what point did you realize you only had X number of bullets and you were going to save them?' He said, 'They'll all figure it out. They think they're bulletproof, the way their arm feels at 25 is going to be like that the rest of their lives. It's not. You've got to save your bullets.'"