O's game blog: It's Tillman time in series opener at Boston

The Orioles play at Fenway Park tonight in the opener of a four-game series. It's a ballpark where they have a winning percentage of .682 since late in the 2011 season.

The Orioles have won six of their last seven series at Fenway, going 15-7 in that time. That includes a record of 12-6 there the past two seasons.

Maybe the Orioles will find their longball swing at Fenway. The Birds led the majors with 212 homers last season, which was 24 more than the next closest team. Right now, they've hit just nine homers to rank 13th in the American League.

Both teams have not hit much yet. The Orioles are averaging 4.0 runs per game. The Red Sox are scoring just 3.5 per game, and rank 12th in the AL in team batting (.232) and 13th in slugging (.343). Dustin Pedroia went 7-for-15 in that season-opening series in Baltimore, but has gone just 8-for-50 since.

Chris Tillman (1-1, 0.84 ERA) makes his fourth start tonight. He's pitched eight innings or more in back-to-back starts. He ranks second in the AL in ERA and is tied for fourth in WHIP. In a unique stat twist, both his ERA and WHIP are currently 0.84 heading into tonight's start.

The Orioles are 6-3 since their 1-4 start. Over those nine games, the team ERA is 2.93 and the starting pitching ERA is 2.91.

In news from Double-A Bowie, left-hander Chris Petrini has been put on the disabled list with a strained neck. The Baysox are going to add right-handed pitcher Steven Hensley. Also, pitcher Zach Davies is going to come off the DL next week and rejoin the Bowie rotation. Davies has been out since he was struck in the right forearm by a batted ball on April 12 at Akron. He's the O's No. 11 prospect according to Baseball America.

Two doubles for Nick Markakis: Markakis already has two doubles in this game, matching his extra-base hit total of two for the year coming into tonight. He doubled and scored in the first and doubled in a run during the O's three-run third. Before this game, Markakis did not have an extra-base hit over his last seven games. Nelson Cruz came up with a two-run single in the top of the third as the O's took a 4-0 lead. He now has nine RBIs on the season and six over his last nine games.

Tillman goes five: For the second time this year the Red Sox made Tillman throw over 100 pitches in five just innings. He really had to work tonight to get through the fifth and Tillman allowed seven hits and three runs on 122 pitches, just three shy of his career high. But Tillman left with a 6-3 lead and Brian Matusz retired the Red Sox in the sixth as the O's took that lead to the seventh tonight.