O's game blog: Bundy faces Wright in homestand opener

After losing four straight at Toronto to complete a 2-4 road trip, the Orioles begin a six-game homestand tonight. They will host Boston for three games and Miami for three beginning Friday night.

The Orioles (19-45) return home with the worst record in the majors. They have lost 11 of 13, 13 of 17 and 17 of their past 23. The Orioles are 1-6 against Boston but this is the first series the club have played at Oriole Park. The O's are 1-9 their past 10 games against the Red Sox.

The Red Sox are 44-22 and trail the New York Yankees (42-19) by a ½-game for first in the AL East. Boston just completed a 3-3 homestand where the Red Sox won the first two games and then went 1-3. But over longer stretches they have won eight of 13 and 16 of 24.

AL East best winning percentage within division games
.714 - Boston (25-10)
.625 - New York (15-9)
.414 - Toronto (12-17)
.407 - Tampa Bay (11-16)
.310 - Orioles (9-20)

The Red Sox have recorded multiple extra-base hits in each of their last 39 games since April 30, the longest streak for any team this season. It is Boston's second-longest such streak since at least 1908 (40 straight games in 1998). Boston leads MLB in runs (341), average (.264) and EBH (253). Boston's 65 homers since April 30 leads the majors in that span.

Trey Mancini and Jonathan Schoop hit homers for the Orioles on Sunday. Both were solo homers and the Orioles last 16 homers have been solo home runs. That dates to May 19 when Pedro Álvarez hit a two-run homer.

The Orioles scored 11 runs in four games in the series at Rogers Centre. But they went just 1-for-27 with runners in scoring position in that series and 3-for-34 in the six games of the road trip.

Right-hander Dylan Bundy (4-7, 4.04 ERA) makes his 14th start tonight. He is coming off an outing where he threw seven scoreless on three hits against the New York Mets. Over his past five starts, Bundy is 3-2 with a 2.57 ERA. That is since he allowed seven runs without recording an out May 8 versus Kansas City.

In those five starts, he has thrown 35 innings allowing 23 hits with 10 walks and 40 strikeouts. Bundy has thrown eight quality starts but the Orioles are just 5-8 in his games in 2018. In seven home starts, Bundy is 2-4 with a 4.78 ERA.

Knuckleballer Steven Wright (2-0, 1.57 ERA) will make his eight appearance and second start. He begins tonight with a 16 innings scoreless streak, the longest current stretch in the AL and third-longest in the majors.

His last game was his lone start on the season and he threw seven scoreless on two hits Tuesday against Detroit. It was his second career scoreless start and he retired the last 13 batters.

On May 18, Wright pitched in relief versus the Orioles and gave up three hits and two runs over 4 2/3. In seven career games (four starts) against Baltimore he is 2-2 with a 5.68 ERA, allowing eight homers in 31 2/3 innings.

In an unrelated development, the comedian Steven Wright once said "you can't have everything, where would you put it?"

Frederick's All-Stars: Four members of the Single-A Frederick Keys will play in the Carolina League All-Star game June 19. They are outfielder Ryan McKenna, second baseball Preston Palmeiro and pitchers Alexander Wells and Christian Alvarado.

The 21-year-old McKenna is batting .367/.455/.524 with 16 doubles, a triple, six homers, 33 RBIs and an OPS of .979. McKenna has 84 hits and that ranks second in all of minor league baseball and he is tied for sixth in batting average. McKenna's .367 average also paces all of Advanced-A baseball. He was the Orioles' minor league Player of the Month for May after hitting .397/.470/.586 to go with a 1.056 OPS.

Palmeiro is the son of former Oriole Rafael Palmeiro. He is batting .288/.352/.478 with nine homers and 36 RBIs and he leads the Keys in both categories. A native of Australia, Wells makes an All-Star team for the third year in a row after doing that with short season Single-A Aberdeen and Single-A Delmarva. For Frederick he is 3-4 wtih a 3.99 ERA over 11 starts. A native of Venezuela, Alvarado is 5-5 with a 4.15 ERA in 11 starts.