O's game blog: Jimenez faces Archer at Camden Yards

After opening an 11-game homestand with a 7-6 loss to Tampa Bay last night, the Orioles host the Rays tonight in the second game of a four-game series.

Now at 80-66, the Orioles are tied for second with Toronto in the American League East, two games behind Boston. They are tied with the Blue Jays for both American League wild card spots with both teams now leading Detroit and Seattle by two games, New York by three and Houston by four games.

Six different Orioles have reached 20 home runs this season (Pedro Álvarez, Jonathan Schoop, Adam Jones, Manny Machado, Chris Davis, and Mark Trumbo). According to STATS, LLC., the Orioles are the 19th club to do so in MLB history. The 2016 Orioles are the first team to have at least six players with 20 or more homers in a season since the 2010 Toronto Blue Jays had seven. It is the second time in club history that Baltimore has accomplished the feat (1996 Orioles, seven players).

Tonight's starting pitchers are right-handers Ubaldo Jimenez (7-11, 5.98 ERA), making his 23rd start, and Chris Archer (8-18, 4.95 ERA), making his 31st.

Jimenez has recorded four straight quality starts, going 2-1 with an ERA of 2.83. Over his last five starts, including an outing from July 28, he has an ERA of 2.67.

Two starts ago, Jimenez pitched a complete-game two-hitter against the Rays team he faces tonight. In his last start on Saturday at Detroit he went seven innings allowing four hits and two runs. So, over those two games, the opponents have hit just .111 (6-for-54) against him over 16 innings.

Like Yovani Gallardo, who gave up three runs in the first last night, Jimenez has had his share of opening-inning struggles. His ERA is 8.02 with a batting average against of .351 in the first inning. In two starts this season against the Rays, he is 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA. In seven career starts he is 5-2 with a 2.89 ERA.

One year after finishing fifth in the Cy Young Award voting, Archer leads all of major league baseball in losses. At the same time he ranks first in the AL and fourth in MLB with 217 strikeouts. His 18 losses tie a team record set by Tanyon Sturtze in 2002. The only AL pitcher to lead the league in both losses and strikeouts in the same year was California's Nolan Ryan in 1976.

Over his last six starts, Archer has fanned 49 in 38 2/3 innings for a rate of 11.41 per nine innings. Six times this year he has recorded double digit strikeout totals.

In 11 starts since the All-Star break, Archer is 4-6 with a 3.11 ERA and .202 batting average against. In three 2016 starts against Baltimore, he is 1-2 with a 4.74 ERA. In 12 career games (11 starts) he is 3-6 with a 4.52 ERA. In four career games (three starts) at Camden Yards, Archer is 1-3 with a 6.41 ERA.

A few hitting notes:

* Jones is now batting .304/.351/.449 (21-for-69) with five walks, a double, three home runs, 10 runs scored and seven RBIs over his last 17 games.

* Machado has hit safely in 14 of his last 15 games, batting .302/.343/.540 (19-for-63) with a double, triple, four home runs, nine runs scored and 10 RBIs in that span.

* Matt Wieters posted his 19th multi-RBI game of the season last night, going 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBIs.

* Schoop slugged his 35th double of the season in the series opener. Of his 152 hits, 60 have been extra-base hits with 35 doubles, one triple and 24 homers.

* J.J. Hardy has now hit safely in five of his last six games, batting .471/.571/.765 (8-for-17) with four walks, two doubles, a home run, two runs scored and six RBIs. Hardy has 10 RBIs his last nine games.