O's game blog: Birds look to buy a few hits off Sale tonight

The next week and a half provides the Orioles with a chance to do themselves some good. But first they need to improve on a 16-17 home record as they settle in for an 11-game homestand that begins tonight against Chicago. Wei-Yin Chen (7-2, 3.78 ERA) faces left-hander Chris Sale (6-1, 2.20 ERA). One day after facing one of baseball's best starters, the Orioles see another. Some of Sale's numbers are crazy good. For instance, he has allowed just 39 hits over 65 1/3 innings for a batting average against of .171. Sale has walked just 10 batters with 75 strikeouts. He has fanned 10 or more in three of his 10 starts. Left-handed batters hit just .105 against him and right-handed batters are hitting .184. Sale missed time from April 18 to May 21 with his first DL stint with a flexor muscle strain. It might be especially tough to score on Sale early. His ERA is 0.46 over the first four innings of his starts. In those 39 innings he has given up just two runs on 13 hits with five walks and 48 strikeouts. He's almost unhittable early in his outings. A case can be made that the Orioles are facing a better pitcher tonight than they did yesterday: Tanaka: 0.956 WHIP...10.0 K per 9 IP...1.4 BB per 9 IP...7.2 hits per 9 IP....2.76 FIP. Sale: 0.750 WHIP.......10.3 K per 9 IP...1.4 BB per 9 IP...5.4 hits per 9 IP....2.18 FIP. Maybe Chen can match him tonight. He's been pitching well and the O's lefty is 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA over his last four starts. He's allowed two earned runs or less in seven of his last 10 games. O's starters have recorded 12 quality starts the last 16 games with an ERA of 2.40 in that stretch. The Orioles will go over the one million mark in home attendance tonight in their 33rd home date. That happened in their 35th date last year. Current home attendance is 995,234. The O's picked up their seventh shutout yesterday, one more than they had all of last year. At their current pace, they would finish with 15. That would be the most since they had 16 in 1992. The club record is 21 in 1961. As they begin play tonight, the Orioles are 1 1/2 games back in the AL East. They have won four of their last five and seven of 11 games. They are 13-8 the past 21 games. Can the O's take advantage of the home cooking the next 11 games?