O's game blog: Kevin Gausman on mound in road trip opener

For the first time since July 2, the Orioles play an American League East opponent tonight. On that date, they played Tampa Bay and the Rays are the opponent tonight at Tropicana Field to begin a three-game series and six-game road trip.

The Orioles are 26-20 against AL East opponents and 5-4 versus the Rays, including a mark of 2-1 at The Trop.

Right-hander Kevin Gausman (6-7, 6.11 ERA) will make his team-leading 22nd start. Gausman gave up just one run over six innings last Wednesday against Texas. But in the previous two starts before that, he gave up 14 runs over seven innings. But in the previous two starts before that, he did not allow a run over 12 1/3 innings. So, yes, he has been a bit inconsistent.

Gausman's 6.11 ERA would be the highest of his career. His current career high of 5.66 was set back in his rookie season of 2013. Gausman has allowed a .319 batting average against right-handers this season. That mark is the sixth-highest in the major leagues and third in the AL.

Gausman will be making his 12th start against an AL East opponent. He is 4-3 with a 4.72 ERA against the division this season. In 65 career outings (47 starts) against AL East foes, he has gone 18-17 with a 3.83 ERA and 18 quality starts.

Gausman has made one start this year against Tampa Bay and he pitched seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball on July 2. He has thrown 14 2/3 consecutive scoreless against the Rays.

Caleb Joseph is catching tonight for the Orioles. Gausman's ERA this year is 4.50 with an OPS allowed of .741 in nine games with Joseph behind the plate. In 12 games with Welington Castillo, Gausman has an ERA of 7.35 and a .993 OPS allowed.

Left-hander Blake Snell (0-5, 4.98) will make his 12th start for the Rays. Snell is averaging 5.9 walks and 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings and has a WHIP of 1.625. He does not have one quality start all year and the Rays are 3-8 in his games. He was once among baseball's top prospects. At the end of the 2015 season, Snell was ranked as the Rays' No. 1 prospect and was No. 12 among the sport's top 100, according to Baseball America. He was the 52nd overall pick in the 2011 draft.

Among qualifying major league rookies, the O's Trey Mancini ranks third in batting average (.304) and slugging percentage (.524), fourth in on-base percentage (.350), fifth in RBIs (52), and sixth in home runs (15).

Leadoff hitter Adam Jones had four hits on Sunday, while José Altuve had four hits for the Astros. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it marked the fourth game in the last eight years in which each leadoff hitter had at least four hits. Since 2010, Jones and Altuve joined Chris Coghlan and Ian Desmond (April 6, 2011), Denard Span and José Reyes (Aug. 19, 2016), and Jones again, this time with Trea Turner (Aug. 23, 2016).

AL top batting averages, runners in scoring position among qualifying hitters:
.431 - Trey Mancini, Orioles
.395 - Mookie Betts, Red Sox
.392 - Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox
.388 - Marwin Gonzalez, Astros
.371 - Adam Jones, Orioles
.368 - Jonathan Schoop, Orioles