O's game blog: Bud Norris on the mound against Toronto

Bud Norris makes his second start of the season here tonight against Toronto. His first went well for a short time. He needed just 25 pitches to sail through the first two innings last Saturday at Detroit, but he then gave up five runs over the next three innings on 78 pitches. Norris made five Camden Yards starts last season and went 2-1 with an ERA of 7.30, but the Orioles went 4-1 in those games. It's certainly not a trend for him since he ranked second in the National League in home ERA in 2012 for Houston at 1.71. After his stellar outing here last night, Chris Tillman now ranks sixth in the AL in ERA (0.84), is tied for second in innings (21 1/3) and tied for fourth among starters in fewest runners per nine innings (7.59). O's pitching has been getting better over the last five games. In that time, the team ERA is 2.86, the starters ERA is 3.38 and the bullpen ERA is 1.50. With their win this afternoon, Tampa Bay now leads the AL East at 7-5 with Toronto next at 6-5. The Blue Jays began a nine-game road trip with a 2-0 win here last night. It was their third shutout and Toronto didn't get its third shutout in 2013 until Game 59 on June 5. Last night was Toronto's 2,908th win in franchise history and just the 20th when getting three or fewer hits. It was the second in the majors this year. Atlanta beat Milwaukee 1-0 April 2 on three hits. Feel free to leave any questions and/or comments in this blog during tonight's game. A couple of Norfolk notes: The Triple-A Norfolk Tides, with a 3-5 record, are playing at Charlotte tonight with T.J. McFarland on the mound. The game was scoreless in the third inning at last check. Norfolk catcher Caleb Joseph is 9-for-21 during a five-game hitting streak with three doubles, a homer and six RBIs. He is 5-for-7 on the year against lefty pitching. Through eight games, Norfolk's bullpen has thrown 9 2/3 more innings (42 1/3) than Norfolk's starting pitchers (32 2/3). Tides relievers have posted a 2.55 ERA with 45 strikeouts, while Tides starters have pitched to a 5.23 ERA with 33 strikeouts. With a couple of pitchers not fully stretched out yet, that inning disparity figures to change for the Tides. Where's the beef: The Orioles and Blue Jays are 0-0 through five innings. To this point the Orioles have scored no runs on nine hits in this series. They are 1-for-5 tonight with runners in scoring position. This followed the last two games of the series in New York where they scored 19 runs on 32 hits and went 9-for-24 with RISP.