O's game blog: Machado's take on Davis, today's pitchers and more

O's third baseman Manny Machado is the latest Oriole to campaign for the team to re-sign pending free agent first baseman Chris Davis. He expressed those sentiments earlier today in the Orioles clubhouse.

"When you have a guy hitting 40-something home runs and driving in 120, you want to see him back. We need him back," Machado said. "From the season we had, going from losing Nelson Cruz, (Nick) Markakis and (Andrew) Miller, we have to do something. I think our top priority should be signing Davis back and then trying to get a few more key pieces to stay here. We need to get back to where we need to be. Losing Davis would not help us."

Machado stopped short of saying he would go directly to team management to express that, as Adam Jones said he intended to do.

"I'm just here to play baseball," Machado said. "Adam is our franchise player and he has more of a voice than anyone in this clubhouse. We all want him. But we know it's a business and someone could offer him more money somewhere else. At the end of the day, I think we need Davis here. We need (Darren) O'Day here and (Wei-Yin) Chen. Those are guys that helped us become a winning organization."

On the mound this afternoon in the season finale, Chris Tillman (10-11, 5.05 ERA) pitches against right-hander Michael Pineda (12-9, 4.24 ERA).

Tillman has recorded two straight quality starts, allowing five runs in 13 1/3 innings. In six September starts, he went 1-2 with a 7.03 ERA. In his only start this year against New York, he gave up four runs and 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings on May 7.

Pineda beat the Orioles on May 10 in New York when he struck out 16 Orioles without allowing a walk over seven innings. But overall, in four 2015 starts against Baltimore, he is 2-1 with a 5.70 ERA. He leads the American League in strikeout-to-walks ratio at 7.19 with 151 strikeouts to 21 walks.

A win today would give the Orioles an 81-81 (.500) record and would mark the fourth consecutive season with at least at a .500 record. The Orioles went 93-69 (.574) in 2012, 85-77 (.525) in 2013, and 96-66 (.593) in 2014. Prior to 2012, the Orioles had 14 consecutive losing from 1998-2011.

Since the start of the 2012 season, the Orioles lead the American League and rank fifth in the majors with a 354-293 (.547) record. The Orioles' 852 home runs over that span lead the majors, 62 homers ahead of the next closest team - the Toronto Blue Jays - at 790.