O's game blog: Seven-game homestand begins

After going 3-5 on a three-city road trip, the Orioles are back home to start a seven-game homestand. Tonight they host Texas for the first of four and then the Los Angeles Dodgers will be at Oriole Park for three games.

The Orioles (46-93) went 1-1 at Washington and 1-2 at both Kansas City and Tampa Bay on their trip. The Birds have lost four of five but they are 5-5 over the last 10 games.

With a win tonight, Baltimore will match the 2018 team's total of 47 victories. That team played .290 baseball and the current team is at .331.

Texas (68-73) went 2-2 against Seattle and 1-2 at Yankee Stadium in its past two series. The Rangers are 3-3 in the last six games, 8-9 in 17 and 20-31 since the All-Star break. This was after Texas was 48-42 at the break.

The Rangers have gone 2-12-5 in their last 19 series and 0-9-2 in their last 11 road series. They are 40-29 at home but just 28-44 in road games in 2019.

Left-hander John Means (10-9, 3.55 ERA) has put together back-to-back seven-inning starts versus Tampa Bay and Kansas City. Over his past three starts, he has an ERA of 2.37 and a .192 batting average against. In his first five second-half starts, before these past three, Means was 1-4 with an 8.34 ERA.

He was a 14-2 winning pitcher Friday at K.C., going seven innings, allowing five hits and two runs on 74 pitches. His pitches by inning in that start: eight, 15, eight, 12, nine, 11 and 11.

The 2019 American League All-Star has been stellar at home. In 15 games (13 starts), he is 7-4 with a 2.88 ERA and a 1.014 WHIP. Means has allowed 1.1 homers per every nine innings at home and his homer rate is 1.5 in road games.

Lefty Kolby Allard (3-0, 4.33 ERA) will make his sixth start for Texas. The Rangers acquired the 22-year-old Allard on July 30 from Atlanta from right-hander Chris Martin. In 21 starts this year at Triple-A, Allard has gone 7-5 with a 3.99 ERA.

He was a first-round draft pick (No. 14 overall) by Atlanta in 2015 out of San Clemente (Calif.) High School. In three road starts, Allard is 2-0 with a 2.76 ERA and with six walks to 20 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings. Tonight will be his seventh career major league start and first-ever game against the Orioles.

In his last two starts, he has thrown two of the highest-strike percentages by a Rangers pitcher in 2019. Two starts ago, he fired 71.7 percent strikes against the White Sox. In his last start, when he gave up two runs in 5 2/3 innings versus Seattle, he threw 70.7 percent strikes.

Since beating Kansas City 14-2 on Friday, the Orioles have played five straight games decided by two runs or less. They are 1-4 in those games, winning the doubleheader opener 4-2 in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Tuesday before losing the second game 2-0 to Tampa Bay.