O's game blog: Dylan Bundy faces White Sox in series finale

CHICAGO - When Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy (2-6, 4.70 ERA) makes his 11th start of the year this afternoon, he will look to do a better job keeping the ball in the ballpark. Over his first five games, when he went 1-2 with a 1.42 ERA, Bundy allowed just one home run in 31 2/3 innings. But over his past five starts, where he is 1-4 with a 9.41 ERA, he has allowed 12 homers over 22 innings and a .316 batting average against.

In 2016, Bundy allowed 1.5 homers for every nine innings he pitched. Last year, that number was 1.4 homers and this year it is 2.2 per nine innings. Bundy's current WHIP of 1.398 is his career worst, as is his mark of allowing 9.4 hits per nine innings. But his strikeout rate of 10.6 per nine is a career best at this point.

Lefty batters are hitting .330 with an OPS of .962 against him and right-handed batters are at .204/.749. The Orioles are 3-7 in Bundy's 10 starts and he has just one quality start over his past five outings.

This will be Bundy's fifth day game start of the season. He has gone 1-1 with a 0.70 ERA in four starts during the day this season. His 0.70 daytime ERA leads the majors (minimum three daytime starts). In his career, Bundy has gone 6-6 with a 4.75 ERA in 25 day games (17 starts).

Right-hander Lucas Giolito (3-4, 6.42 ERA) is making his 10th start for Chicago. The 23-year-old Giolito has thrown 47 2/3 innings and is tied for the league lead with 34 walks and leads the American League with nine hit by pitches. He gave up nine runs in two innings in a home start on April 21 versus Houston. In four starts at home, he is 1-2 with a 10.19 ERA.

Giolito was drafted 16th overall in the first round of the 2012 draft by the Washington Nationals. He was then traded to Chicago with two other pitchers for outfielder Adam Eaton on Dec. 7, 2016. Last season, Giolito went 3-3 with a 2.38 ERA for the White Sox before his struggles of this year, which seem to be mostly tied to poor control.

The Orioles lost 11-1 last night and have lost five of seven games on this 11-game road. Today ends a four-game series where they have gone 1-2. The Orioles are 2-17 in the last 19 road games and 5-21 on the road for the season.

Chicago (15-31) is starting to win a few games, going 5-2 in the last seven and 6-4 in the past 10. Last night, the White Sox snapped a 21-game streak of scoring six runs or less and their 11 runs were a season high in a home game.