O's game blog: Orioles looking for 2-0 start to road trip at Oakland

The Orioles have had an interesting stretch of games since they were a season-high six games under the .500 mark at 23-29 on June 3.

From that point, they went 18-5 and moved a season-high seven games over .500 at 41-34. They followed that by losing 15-of-20 games. But now, they have won eight of their last 10 games. That all adds up to the Orioles playing .585 baseball at 31-22 since that June 3 date.

They've gone from six games under .500 to now three over at 54-51, and they started today in a three-way tie with Minnestoa and Toronto for the American Leagues's second wild card. They are 5 1/2 games out in the AL East.

The Orioles are 26-17 on the West Coast since 2012. They went 8-8 out west in 2012, 11-5 in 2013 and 6-4 last year.

Earlier today, I wrote about Caleb Joseph and his hot bat. He is 4-for-7 his last two games with two homers and six RBIs. Over his past 11 games, he is batting .314 (11-for-35) with four homers and 16 RBIs.

Joseph is doing a lot of that damage batting ninth. When hitting in that spot in the order, Joseph is batting .280 with six homers, 23 RBIs and an OPS of .876 in 28 games. Joseph ranks second in the majors in homers and RBIs when batting ninth to the Cubs' Addison Russell, who has seven homers and 26 RBIs when hitting ninth.

Chris Davis has now homered in back-to-back games and driven in at least one run in five consecutive games. Over his last 13 games, Davis is batting .292 with eight homers and 22 RBIs. He has an RBI in 10 of those 13 games.

Davis has six home runs and 19 RBIs over his last 10 games. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the last Oriole to do so was also Davis, in his first 10 games of the 2013 season. Over the last 30 seasons, the only other players to do so for the Orioles were Albert Belle in June 2000 and Cal Ripken, Jr. in May/June 1996. Only one other player has had a 10-game span of this type in 2015, and that is Colorado's Carlos Gonzalez, with eight homers and 19 RBIs from July 11-27.

Davis now ranks second in the AL in RBIs. Toronto's Josh Donaldson is first with 77, and Davis has 75. Davis is on a pace to finish the year with 42 homers and 116 RBIs.

Tonight's starting pitchers at Oakland are Miguel Gonzalez (9-7, 4.28 ERA) for the Orioles and right-hander Chris Bassitt (0-4, 3.10 ERA) for the A's.

Since returning from a DL stint on June 25, Gonzalez is 4-3 with a 6.19 ERA in seven starts. His ERA was 3.33 before he went on the disabled list. During this seven-start stretch, Gonzalez is unbeaten on the road, yet winless at home:

* He is 4-0 with a 3.04 ERA in four road starts.
* He is 0-3 with an ERA of 12.08 in three home starts.

On Thursday at Camden Yards, Gonzalez gave up hits to seven of the first nine Detroit Tigers he faced. He took the loss, allowing 10 hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings, his shortest start of the year.

The 26-year-old Bassitt has made 10 big league appearances this year, five as starter. In those starts, he is 0-4 with a 3.00 ERA. Over 30 innings, he has walked just three and fanned 19. In five home games, Bassitt is 0-3 with a 2.63 ERA.

The South Atlantic League has named Delmarva Shorebirds left-hander John Means its Pitcher of the Week. Means tossed a seven-inning no-hitter on Friday night at Perdue Stadium.

Means leads the Shorebirds with eight victories, and his 3.48 ERA ranks ninth in the league. Means also leads the team in innings pitched (103 1/3), quality starts (six) and strikeouts (78). He was an 11th round pick in the 2014 draft out of West Virginia University.