Norris on the hill in series finale

The Orioles close out their three-game series with the Red Sox this afternoon by sending Bud Norris to the mound for his fourth start.

Norris is 0-2 with a 17.42 ERA in 10 1/3 innings, and his 20 earned runs were tied last night with Milwaukee's Kyle Lohse for the most in the majors.

Norris has worked three, five and 2 1/3 innings in his starts. In two games against the Blue Jays, he's allowed 17 runs and 13 hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Time to change opponents.

Norris is 1-2 with a 3.41 ERA in five career starts against the Red Sox. Allen Craig is 8-for-20 (.400) with a double, two home runs and seven RBIs. Hanley Ramirez is 6-for-12 (.500) with a double and home run. Daniel Nava is 3-for-8 (.375) with two doubles.

Mike Napoli is 2-for-12 (.167) with seven strikeouts.

Boston left-hander Wade Miley is 1-1 with a 6.08 ERA in three starts, with nine runs and 12 hits allowed in 13 1/3 innings. He's walked nine and struck out 10.

In his last start, Miley shut out the Rays on three hits over 5 2/3 innings.

Miley never has pitched at Camden Yards. In his only career start against the Orioles, he allowed four runs and seven hits over seven innings with the Diamondbacks in 2013.

Everth Cabrera will be starting at shortstop again today. He's 10-for-21 (.476) with a double, triple and home run against Miley. The rest of the current Orioles are 2-for-17.

The Red Sox didn't attempt to steal a base last night because their chances were limited by Wei-Yin Chen, who retired the last 12 batters he faced. Catcher Caleb Joseph has thrown out the last two attempting to steal against him after being 0-for-8.

"It's a trend," said bench coach John Russell. "We work on it. We throw as much as we can. Unfortunately, you can't take a catcher out and throw every day. He wouldn't be able to lift his arm the next day. Ryan (Lavarnway) threw today and Caleb will throw on Monday. We do as much as we can on the road. But the repetition is a big thing.

"Our pitchers are really good at being quick to the plate, so we don't get a lot of reps and then when we do get a rep, you start to get that feeling. I think he started to get his rhythm back a little bit and he's starting to get some things down. I think it's just repetition and getting back into it. I'm not worried about Caleb. His footwork is fine. He's just misfired a couple, but he's made some strong throws that were bang-bang that we didn't get. He's going to throw fine.

"I think now that he's thrown a couple guys out he feels more comfortable with it. I'm not worried about it."

Shameless plug alert: I'm appearing on "O's Xtra" at 1 p.m. on MASN. I'm only a little worried about it.