O's game blog: Mike Wright on the mound in Toronto series opener

When the Orioles (8-3) open a series against the Toronto Blue Jays (7-7) tonight at Camden Yards, right-hander Mike Wright will once again be pitching on extra rest.

Wright's first scheduled start was pushed back twice - once by a rainout - and he didn't make his first start until April 12 in the Orioles' seventh game of the year. Then, after Sunday's rainout at Texas and yesterday's off-day, Wright had another start pushed back. He will start on six days' rest tonight against the Blue Jays.

Wright (1-0, 7.20 ERA) faces Toronto's opening day starter, right-hander Marcus Stroman (2-0, 4.22 ERA), in the series opener.

Wright was the winning pitcher in the Orioles' 9-5 victory at Boston last Tuesday. Over five innings he gave up five hits and four runs. He allowed two homers and threw 96 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Wright went 3-5 with a 6.04 ERA last season over 12 games and nine starts. In the starts, he was 2-5 with a 6.48 ERA and allowed nine homers over 41 2/3 innings. But he had a solid spring and began this year as the O's No. 4 starter. He faced Toronto three times last season, making two starts, and went 0-2 with an ERA of 9.45. Over 6 2/3 innings, he allowed 12 hits and seven runs with seven walks to five strikeouts.

During their 8-3 start, O's starters have pitched 5 1/3 or fewer innings eight times and have just one quality start all year. Over the last seven games, O's starters have pitched to an ERA of 7.05.

Stroman has pitched against three American League East teams so far, facing the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees. He held New York to three hits and two runs over eight innings in his last start, throwing just 21 pitches over his last three innings and 106 for the game.

In 17 career games (16 starts) versus the AL East, Stroman is 12-3 with a 2.90 ERA. He has allowed three earned runs or less in 13 of the 16 starts. He is 1-1 with an ERA of 3.00 in three career games (two starts) versus the Orioles.

The Orioles went 8-11 against Toronto last year and their pitchers had an ERA of 5.84 in the season series. But most of the struggles can be traced to two pitchers. Chris Tillman and Bud Norris went a combined 0-6 with an ERA of 14.67 against Toronto in 2015. The rest of the O's pitchers went 8-5 with a 3.82 ERA against the Blue Jays.

The Orioles have hit eight homers over the last two games. They have six multi-homer games this year, going 5-1 in those six contests.

The Orioles begin play tonight leading the AL in batting average (.291), OBP (.354), slugging (.540) and OPS (894). They rank second in runs scored at 60 and are averaging 5.45 per game. They lead the AL with 23 homers. Toronto is averaging 4.00 runs per game on a team average of .230 with 14 homers during a 7-7 start.

Against right-handed pitchers in 2016, Manny Machado is batting .486 (17-for-35) with four doubles, four homers, a .943 slugging percentage and an OPS of 1.456.