O's game blog: The series opener against Cleveland

The next team to hit town on the current Orioles homestand is the Cleveland Guardians. The Orioles and Guardians begin a three-game series at the Yard tonight that continues on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Cleveland (22-24) got off to a 7-5 start to its season, but has gone 15-19 since April 22. Most recently though, the Guardians swept three from Kansas City, winning by 7-3 and 8-3, and then 4-0 on Wednesday night. Cleveland is in second place in the American League Central and is 4 ½ games behind the Minnesota Twins.

Cleveland is 11-16 on the road, 3-4 versus American League East teams, and is 7-10 over its past 17 games.

Cleveland only ranks 10th in the American League in rotation ERA (4.09) and seventh in overall team ERA (3.73) in the league, but has been getting outstanding pitching lately. Over its past 15 games, the Guardians overall ERA is 2.52 and its rotation ERA is 2.80 in that span.

Cleveland’s José Ramírez, a three-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger, is having another big year. He is batting .292 with a 1.025 OPS to go with 13 homers and 52 RBIs. He ranks first in the AL in RBIs, and no one else is close. New York’s Aaron Judge is second with 39 RBIs. Ramírez is second in slugging (.632) and OPS. His whiff rate of 11.2 is third lowest among qualifying hitters in the league.

Right-hander Shane Bieber (2-3, 3.19 ERA) will make his 10th start for Cleveland. The 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner has thrown 53 2/3 innings on the year, allowing 51 hits and just four homers with 14 walks and 51 strikeouts. He has a 1.211 WHIP, a 2.3 walk rate and 8.6 strikeout rate.

Since allowing seven runs in 3 1/3 innings on May 7 versus Toronto, he has been on a three-start roll, pitching to an ERA of 1.71 in that span. Over 21 innings he allowed four earned runs with five walks and 22 strikeouts. The Guardians are 5-4 in his 2022 starts.

Bieber is throwing his fastball just 38 percent, at an average velocity of 90.7 mph, and he uses his slider 41 percent, curveball 18 percent and changeup just three percent of the time.

The Orioles (22-31) are 1-2 on this eight-game homestand, 13-13 at home, and they are 4-4 over their past eight games and 8-7 in the last 15. They are 7-9 in series-opening games.

Lefty Bruce Zimmermann (2-3, 4.53 ERA) will make his 11th start for the Orioles, trying to reverse a recent trend that saw him allow nine homers his past two starts.

A few O’s hitter notes:

* Austin Hays is 17-for-50 during a 13-game hitting streak and batting .340/.411/.480/.891 during the streak. It is the second longest hitting streak of his career, behind a 17-game run late last season. Hays ranks 10th in the American League in batting average at .302 and is 14th in the league in OPS at .826.

* Trey Mancini has reached base in 25 of his past 26 games, batting .350 (35-for-100) in that span, with four doubles, three homers and 11 RBIs. He has five extra-base hits his last five games after producing just three in the previous 25 games.

* Jorge Mateo is batting .280 (7-for-25) his past seven games, with two doubles, a triple, a homer and three RBIs.

* Ryan Mountcastle has hit five homers at home this year and is slugging .500 at Oriole Park with an .837 OPS at home. Those numbers are .346 and .616 on the road.

Hope you enjoy tonight's radio broadcast, because I will be on it, calling the game tonight with Scott Garceau on the Orioles Radio Network and WBAL Radio in Baltimore. 

O’s awards from Minor League Baseball:

Two pitchers from the O's farm picked up Minor League Pitcher of the Month awards for May today in their respective leagues. 

Triple-A Norfolk Tides right-hander Grayson Rodriguez was tops in the International League and went 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA in six starts. He led the league in innings pitched (32.0) and strikeouts (48) as he allowed eight runs on 20 hits. He held opponents to a .177 average in May. Rodriguez, 22, was selected by Baltimore in the first round (11th overall) of the 2018 First-Year Player Draft out of Central Heights High School in Nacogdoches, Texas

High Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds right-hander Carlos Tavera was the winner in the South Atlantic League and pitched to a 0.41 ERA in four starts as he allowed just six hits and five walks in 18 1/3 innings. He held opponents to a league-low .098 average and struck out 26 batters (12.8 per nine innings). Tavera, 23, was selected by Baltimore in the fifth round of the 2021 draft out of the University of Texas-Arlington.