O's game blog: Road trip starts in Cleveland

The Orioles begin their next-to-last road trip of the year tonight and it will certainly be a very challenging one. It starts with three games at Cleveland against the Indians, who have won 15 in a row. Then they play three in Toronto and four games at Yankee Stadium.

The Orioles begin the trip at 71-69 with 22 games to play. They are two games behind Minnesota for the second wild card with the Twins leading the Angels by one game. The Orioles are 27-39 on the road.

Cleveland (84-56) just concluded an 11-0 road trip and has won 19 of its last 21 on the road. The Indians' 15-game win streak is a franchise record. They've outscored their opponents 109-28 during the streak. Cleveland's plus-199 run differential is the best in the majors. The Indians have a magic number of 12 to clinch the American League Central.

The last team to win more than 15 in a row was the 2002 Oakland A's, who won 20 straight. Cleveland is 7-0 in September, 24-4 in its last 28 and 37-16 since the All-Star Game. The Orioles are 1-3 versus the Tribe this year after going 5-1 against them in 2015 and 2016.

On the mound tonight, left-hander Wade Miley (8-11, 4.91 ERA) will make his 29th start. Miley has allowed two earned runs or less in six of his past seven starts, going 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA and three quality starts.

In 15 road starts, Miley is 5-6 with a 5.19 ERA. He has eight quality starts for the season and the Orioles are 15-13 in his 28 starts. Miley has issued 81 walks in 143 innings to lead the AL.

AL walks leaders:
81 - Wade Miley, Orioles
75 - Derek Holland, Chicago
68 - Justin Verlander, Houston
67 - Kevin Gausman, Orioles

The O's rotation certainly needs to do better than the last four games. In that stretch, O's starters pitched a combined 13 1/3 innings allowing 18 runs (16 earned).

Cleveland's starter will be 26-year-old right-hander Mike Clevinger (8-5, 3.50 ERA). In his last start Sept. 1, he pitched six scoreless versus Detroit. Tonight he is pitching on six days' rest.

Clevinger has pitched better away from Cleveland, going 6-3 with a 2.56 ERA on the road. He is 2-2 with a 4.70 ERA in 10 games at home.

O's shortstop Tim Beckham singled to right field in his first at-bat of the game Thursday and singled to center in his fourth at-bat. It was his 37th multi-hit game of the season. He has hit safely in 31 of 35 games since joining the Orioles. With Baltimore, Beckham is batting .359 with 10 doubles, seven home runs, 29 runs and 20 RBIs.

The O's offense has produced just 20 runs over the last six games. They have scored two or less three times. The Orioles are 3-for-43 (.070) with runners in scoring position over those six games. For the season, the Orioles remain No. 1 in the AL with a team batting average of .294 with RISP, ahead of Houston at .291.