O's game blog: O's offense faces challenge of A's pitching staff at the Yard

It's the O's against the A's tonight. Within that battle is the challenge of the Orioles hitters against the Oakland pitchers. While the Orioles have been scoring some runs lately, Oakland has the major league's best team ERA at 2.90. Over the last 26 games, they've been even better with a team ERA of 2.43. In that time, A's starting pitchers have worked to an ERA of 2.61. That pitching has helped Oakland win 18 of its last 26 games. The A's come to town with the AL's best record at 37-23. But the O's hitters have been doing a good job too. The Orioles have scored 29 runs over the last four games, and 93 over their last 17 games - an impressive average of 5.5 per game. The Orioles have scored six runs or more in the last four games, and 11 times in the last 17 games. Stingy pitching staff versus hot offense. "Who will own it?" they might ask on a MASN promo. Tonight's pitching matchup features Wei-Yin Chen (6-2, 4.26 ERA) against lefty Tommy Milone (3-3, 3.60 ERA). Over his last five starts, Milone is 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA and .208 average against. Both these pitchers have outstanding career numbers against tonight's opponent, even though it's a small sample size in both cases. Chen is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.44 in three career starts against Oakland. He's allowed just one run in 20 2/3 innings. In two starts against Baltimore, Milone is 1-1 with an ERA of 0.69. It should be a fun weekend of baseball at the Yard as a very big 10-game homestand begins tonight. Note to the readers: While I am working on some draft stories today and tonight, this might be the best place to post your in-game comments, here in the O's game blog. I may be posting entries on the draft later tonight that publish after this one, and rather than rush to the latest published entry, why not just keep the game comments coming here? Feel free to leave any comments or questions about the draft in the draft blogs.