O's game blog: Matt Harvey faces Chicago (rainout tonight)

With no wins in the last 11 days and just two in the last 22 days, the Orioles take the field in Chicago tonight. The Birds play the first-place White Sox after losing 5-1 last night in the opener of this four-game series.

The Orioles (17-33) have lost 10 in a row, 14 of 15 and 17 of 19 games. They have also lost nine in a row on the road to fall to 11-15 away from Oriole Park.

This is the 17th time in O's team history that they have had a losing streak of at least 10 games. The last time the O's lost 11 straight was from Sept. 17-30, 2009, when they lost 13 straight. They've been outscored 77-40 (minus-37 run differential) in this stretch, while posting an 8.13 ERA.

The Orioles don't have Trey Mancini or Ryan Mountcastle in the lineup tonight. Mancini took a 95 mph fastball to his right elbow in the first inning last night. Manager Brandon Hyde said they "dodged a bullet" with Mancini and that both he and Mountcastle could return to the lineup over the weekend at Chicago.

The Orioles went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the series opener and also struck out 16 times. They had gone just 4-for-32 with RISP in Minnesota, and that makes the club 4-for-44 over the past four games.

The Orioles and White Sox play seven times this season with these four games at Guaranteed Rate Field and also three from July 9-11 at Oriole Park prior to the All-Star break. The clubs are playing for the first time since May 2, 2019 in Chicago. They split six games in 2019 and are 14-14 since 2016.

Chicago (29-20) has been in first place in the American League Central for 23 of the last 24 days and the White Sox are looking to move a season-high-tying 10 games over .500. Chicago is 8-3 in its last 11 home games and has not lost consecutive games at home this season. White Sox starters own a 2.09 ERA, a .172 opponent average, .499 OPS, 63 strikeouts and have allowed three home runs in their last eight games.

Right-hander Matt Harvey (3-5, 6.31 ERA) will make his 11th start. The Orioles are 4-6 in his starts, losing the last four.

After seven starts this year, Harvey had an ERA of 3.60 and opponents hit .250 with an OPS of .693 against him. But he is 0-3 with a 15.19 ERA and batters hitting .444 with an OPS of 1.206 against him in his last three games. In that span, he has thrown 10 2/3 innings, giving up 24 hits and 18 earned runs with three homers allowed.

Has the turn for the worse been due to mechanics, I asked manager Brandon Hyde today.

"No, I thought he threw the ball really well in Washington. I just thought we did not play well defensively behind him," said Hyde. "And that's been kind of a trend with his starts. Lot of bad luck starts, lot of questionable strike/ball nights also for him. But we just have to play better defensively behind him. We've elongated innings and not helped him out on the mound. Which have shortened his outings and produced more runs than he should have given up. But I did like his pitch mix in Washington. I thought he had a good fastball. I've said it a lot, but I've liked the sinker since the start of the year. This is going to be a really good lineup and I hope we catch the ball behind him and help him out."

Lefty Dallas Keuchel (3-1, 4.28 ERA), the 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner with Houston, gets tonight's start for Chicago. Keuchel has allowed 53 hits over 54 2/3 innings with five homers, 17 walks and 28 strikeouts. He has a 1.280 WHIP, with 8.7 hits per nine, a 2.8 walk rate and 4.6 strikeouts per nine.

The White Sox are 6-4 when he starts and Keuchel has allowed two earned runs or less four times with three quality starts. Lefty batters have hit .313 off him with an OPS of .824 and right-handers hit .238/.659.

Update: no game tonight: Tonight's scheduled game between the Orioles and Chicago White Sox has been postponed due to inclement weather. The game will be made up as part of a straight doubleheader tomorrow starting at 2:10 p.m. Eastern time with the second game beginning approximately 30-45 minutes after the first. Harvey is now listed to start the opener on Saturday, with left-hander John Means (4-0, 1.79 ERA) going in the second game.

Movin' on up: The Orioles are moving their top-ranked pitching prospect up from high Single-A Aberdeen to Double-A Bowie. Grayson Rodriguez, the 21-year-old righty, pitched last night for Aberdeen in Game 1 of a doubleheader and improved to 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA and 0.69 WHIP. He fanned nine and allowed just two hits and one run over five innings.

For the year, Rodriguez, ranked as the sport's No. 18 prospect by Baseball America and No. 21 by MLBPipeline.com, has thrown 23 1/3 innings, allowing 11 hits and four runs with five walks and 40 strikeouts.

O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias was a guest on the 105.7 The Fan morning show today and talked about this promotion while hinting others could soon follow.

"We are going to be talking about some stuff this weekend that might happen or next week," said Elias. "We saw last night Grayson have another just dominant performance in High-A, so we feel he's ready for Double-A and he'll be slotting up there for his next appearance joining Bowie. So that's one, but we'll be talking about some other players as well. Whether it's this week or next, or later this month, we've got some really talented kids off to some really good starts and we want to keep challenging them. That's how you get better."

Orioles VP & GM Mike Elias announced this morning that O's #2 prospect @G_Rodriguez16 will be joining the Baysox for his next start!

This month, he has dominated going 3-0 w/ 1.54 ERA with 40 K's 0.69 WHIP & 15.43 K/9

Four of O's top 10 prospects now with Bowie! pic.twitter.com/LRGbV1E8jE

-- Bowie Baysox (@BowieBaysox) May 28, 2021