O's game blog: The homestand begins as O's host Seattle to begin weekend series

After their second off day of this week, the rested Orioles are home tonight to begin a nine-game homestand. The last time they were home they went 5-1 against Kansas City and Toronto. Tonight they welcome Seattle for the first of three and then also host Cincinnati and Minnesota.

The Orioles (45-28, .616) are 4 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay after the Rays lost last night to Kansas City. The Orioles are 22-13 at home and 23-15 on the road.

Starting May 26, the Orioles have gone 3-4-1 in series, going 1-2 versus both Texas and Cleveland, 2-1 at San Francisco and 1-2 at Milwaukee. They then went 3-0 versus Kansas City, 2-1 against Toronto, 1-2 at the Chicago Cubs and 1-1 against Tampa Bay. That is a 12-11 record in that span.

Seattle was a playoff team last year, going 90-72. In the wild card round they beat Toronto two games to none before losing 3-0 at Houston in the American League Division Series. Now the Mariners are 36-37 and in fourth in the AL West and 9 1/2 games behind Texas.

The Mariners got off to a poor start and were 4-8, and later 11-16 through 27 games. By May 28 they had moved three games over .500 at 28-25, but are 8-12 since that point.

Seattle beat the New York Yankees 10-2 last night after losing the first two games of that series. They have lost four of seven and 10 of the past 17 games. Seattle is 15-20 on the road and 4-8 versus AL East teams. The M’s are 13-26 against clubs that are over .500 and 23-11 against under-.500 teams.

Seattle ranks seventh in the AL with a 3.85 team ERA and ranks fifth with a 4.04 rotation ERA. The Mariners have 37 quality starts, which leads the AL, while the Orioles have 24 to rank 10^th in the league.

Orioles right-hander Kyle Gibson (8-4, 3.94 ERA) will make his 16^th start, and the Orioles are 9-6 in the first 15. Gibson is 4-1 with a 2.92 ERA over his past six games with four quality starts. Opponents are batting .218 against him in that span, with a .610 OPS.

Gibson, who is 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA in two starts against AL West clubs this year, has 97 career wins.

O’s starting pitchers have taken an upturn recently. The rotation ERA is 3.31 the last 12 games, and O’s starters have allowed three earned runs or fewer in each of the 12 games. They have done that in 21 of the past 22 games, posting a 3.71 ERA in that stretch.

Right-hander Logan Gilbert (4-4, 4.31 ERA) gets the ball for Seattle and the Mariners are 6-8 in his starts this year. Gilbert, who has never faced the Orioles, went 13-6 with 3.20 ERA over 32 starts last season. But in his last four starts this year, he is 1-2 with a 6.52 ERA. 

Baltimore has won five of the last six games at Oriole Park since June 9 while outscoring opponents 36-17 during that time. The Orioles have the third-best home record in the major leagues at 22-13 (.629), behind Tampa Bay (32-9) and Texas (24-13). It's their best 35-game home start since 2017 (23-12).

The Orioles and Mariners are meeting for the first time this season, and Baltimore travels to Seattle from Aug. 11-13. The M's took four of six games last year and the O's are 9-18 (.333) against the Mariners since 2018. They have not won a season series against the Mariners since 2017 (4-2).