O's game blog: Looking for offense as the Seattle series begins

The Orioles started off the Angels series by scoring 11 runs in the first two games. But they got blanked over 13 innings last night and have not scored in their last 17 innings as their series with Seattle begins tonight. Even in winning six of 10 on their West Coast trip, the Orioles hit just .202 as a team and scored 36 runs. A look at some O's hitters recently: * Nelson Cruz is 0-for-17 over his last five games and 2-for-29 over his last eight. Over his last 18 games, Cruz is 7-for-65 (.108) with one homer and two RBIs. * J.J. Hardy is 5-for-33 (.152) over his last eight games. * Steve Pearce is 4-for-31 (.129) over his last eight games and has not driven in a run over his last 13. * Jonathan Schoop is batting .159 (10-for-63) over his last 19 games. Even players that have been among the club's best hitters for most of the season have cooled a bit. Nick Markakis is 2-for-22 over his last five games and is 7-for-46 (.152) his last 11. Adam Jones is batting .240 his last 12 games, but has hit five homers with 13 RBIs in that stretch. The O's offense in recent series: * 14 runs in three games at A's * 10 runs in three games at Angels * 12 runs in four games at Mariners * 11 runs in three games vs. Angels The Orioles have scored three or fewer runs in 10 of the last 18 games. Good thing the pitching has picked up the pace. On the mound tonight, Wei-Yin Chen (11-3, 3.92 ERA) faces left-hander Roenis Elias (8-8, 4.31 ERA). Chen's last start was in Seattle where he pitched eight scoreless innings on five hits to get the win last Thursday. So he's pitching on seven day's rest tonight. Jones is celebrating his 29th birthday today. Jones has four multi-hit games in six career games on his birthday, batting .375 (9-for-24) with two runs scored and two RBIs in the six games. Let's end with some pretty impressive pitching stats courtesy of O's public relations. The Orioles ranked fourth in the majors with a 2.96 ERA in July, their best monthly mark this season. It is the fifth-best July ERA in club history, and the best since July 1976 (2.90). The O's also posted their best ERA in a full month (minimum 20 games) since May 1981 at 2.90. That was one good month of pitching.