O's game blog: Shooting for another series win

The Orioles will try to continue their weekend success today when they wrap up a three-game series with the Washington Nationals. The Orioles are 9-2 on weekends and 3-0 in weekend series. It started when they went 2-1 at Boston and then later swept Tampa Bay three straight at home. They swept three at Washington last weekend. The completion of the suspended game happened Friday, but that game counts officially as an Aug. 9 contest.

This weekend, the Orioles lost 15-3 Friday night and rebounded nicely last night to post a 7-3 win over the Nats and beat Patrick Corbin. Nats starters in this series - Corbin and Stephen Strasburg - have allowed nine hits, including two homers, and six runs over 5 2/3 innings.

The latest top pitcher the O's face is Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer (1-1, 2.75 ERA), the three-time Cy Young Award winner. Scherzer has made four starts, pitching 19 2/3 innings and allowing 16 hits and 10 walks with 29 strikeouts. He has a WHIP of 1.322 and is allowing 4.6 walks per nine innings with 13.3 strikeouts. The Nats are 2-2 in his starts.

Since 2016, Scherzer has made 129 starts, going 66-28 with a 2.93 ERA and a 0.958 WHIP, while his walk-rate is 2.2 and strikeout rate is 12.0. He won Cy Young Awards in 2013 with Detroit and in 2016 and 2017 with the Nationals. He finished second for the award in 2018 and third last year.

He made one start versus the Orioles last season and took a no-decision on Aug. 28. Over 4 1/3 innings, he gave up six hits and two runs. In 13 career starts, he is 6-2 with a 2.91 ERA and 1.004 WHIP. Not many current O's have faced him much. One that has is Chris Davis, who is not starting again today. He is a career .313 (10-for-32) hitter versus Scherzer. José Iglesias is 2-for-8, Rio Ruiz 1-for-10 and Chance Sisco 1-for-5 with a home run.

Most Cy Young Awards:
7 - Roger Clemens
5 - Randy Johnson
4 - Greg Maddux, Steve Carlton
3 - Jim Palmer, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax, Clayton Kershaw, Tom Seaver, Scherzer.

There is almost no way to have a sense of how O's left-hander John Means (0-1, 7.71 ERA) will pitch today. He began the year on the injured list with arm fatigue and recently missed time on the roster while on bereavement leave and later the injured list. His father, Alan, passed away recently due to cancer and Means will no doubt be pitching with a heavy heart today.

He is also pitching on 11 days' rest and he has never faced the Nationals. In four career interleague starts, he is 0-2 with a 4.19 ERA over 19 1/3 innings with six walks, 18 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.293.

Updating a few O's hitters:

* Anthony Santander had his eight-game RBI streak end last night, falling three short of tying Doug DeCinces' club record. But Santander extended his hitting streak to 10 games. He's batting .310 (13-for-42) during the streak with four doubles, a triple, three homers and 13 RBIs. Santander has 20 RBIs, one off the major league lead.

* Hanser Alberto is batting .366 (15-for-41) during a nine-game hitting streak with eight doubles, 10 runs and seven RBIs. He has 11 doubles on the year to lead the majors.

* Pedro Severino has 11 RBIs in his past seven games. In that span, he is batting .400 (10-for-25) with two doubles and two home runs.

* Ruiz is 6-for-20 (.300) over his past five games with a double, three homers and five RBIs.

MLB team extra-base hits leaders:

78 - Atlanta
77 - Orioles, Los Angeles Dodgers
75 - Tampa Bay
74 - San Diego