O's game blog: The series begins in Chicago

The search for a win to end a long losing streak has moved from Washington to Minnesota and now on to Chicago. Tonight the Orioles take on the first-place White Sox in the first of a four-game series and the seventh game of their current road trip.

The trip began after the Orioles allowed 32 runs in losing three straight at home versus Tampa Bay. Then they lost three in Washington by a combined 22-16 score and three at Minnesota by 18-9.

The Orioles (17-32) begin tonight 13 1/2 games behind the Rays for first in the American League East. They have lost nine in a row, 13 of the last 14 and 16 of 18 games. They have not won since May 16 and have just two wins since May 7.

The Orioles last lost 10 games in a row from June 12-21, 2019.

The Orioles have been outscored 72-39 (minus-33 run differential) in this stretch, while posting an 8.40 ERA and batting .244. They are 2-16 since John Means' no-hitter on May 5 and in this stretch the O's are batting .247, have posted a 6.76 team ERA and have a minus-50 run differential. The O's have gone 2-7 when scoring four or more runs since May 7, after they had gone 13-3 in such games prior to this date. The Orioles have scored first in five straight games, dropping each game. Since May 7, the O's are 1-9 when scoring first, after going 10-1 in such games prior.

On the mound tonight, lefty Bruce Zimmermann (2-3, 5.59 ERA) will make his eighth start. The Orioles are 1-6 in the first seven. On Saturday at Washington, Zimmermann allowed five runs and seven hits over three innings. For the year, over 38 2/3 innings he has allowed 48 hits and nine homers with 12 walks to 30 strikeouts.

Zimmermann produced two quality starts to begin his season, but has none in the last five starts. He is 1-1 with a 6.87 ERA in four road starts.

Righty Dylan Cease (2-1, 3.18 ERA) gets the start, his 10th, for the White Sox. Over 45 1/3 innings this year he has given up 35 hits, but just three homers, with 24 walks and 56 strikeouts. His WHIP number is 1.301, with 4.8 walks per nine innings, and 11.1 strikeouts. The White Sox are 5-4 in his outings.

In his last start, he gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings on Saturday versus the Yankees. But in the four starts previous to that, he went 2-0 with a 1.14 ERA and .152 average against, allowing just one homer over 23 2/3 innings.

He uses his fastball 50 percent of the time with a velocity of 96.2 mph on average. He throws his slider 30 percent, curveball 11 percent and changeup nine percent.

Chicago (28-20) leads the American League Central by one game over Cleveland. Even though the White Sox average 5.0 runs per game and rank first in the AL in OBP (.342) they were shut out yesterday by St. Louis, 4-0, for their fifth shutout.

The White Sox have lost five of their past eight games, but over longer stretches they have won 12 of 19 and 20 of their past 31 games. They are 16-9 at home.

MLB leaders in RBIs

43 - Rafael Devers, Boston
42 - Trey Mancini, Orioles
41 - Adolis Garcia, Texas and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto
39 - Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox

Farm notes: In Game 1 of a doubleheader for high Single-A Aberdeen tonight, right-hander Grayson Rodriguez allowed two hits and one run over five innings with one walk and nine strikeouts. For the year, he has thrown 23 1/3 innings allowing 11 hits and four runs with five walks to 40 strikeouts. That is a 15.4 strikeout rate.

Low Single-A infielder Gunnar Henderson began tonight with 30 RBIs to lead all of minor league baseball. He has a pair of five-RBI games his past three games.