O's game blog: The Tampa Bay series opener

After playing half of their 40 games against Boston and the New York Yankees - and going 8-12 - the Orioles will see a different American League East foe tonight. They host Tampa Bay to start a three-game series.

The Orioles beat the Yankees 10-6 on Sunday as Ryan Mountcastle drove in a career-high four runs and Maikel Franco hit a two-run homer as part of a three-RBI day. Lefty Bruce Zimmermann got the win in relief, allowing two hits and one run over 5 2/3 innings on 84 pitches.

The O's run total Sunday was their most since they plated 11 in the third game of the year at Boston. During the weekend series, they went 9-for-22 (.409) with runners in scoring position. That raised their batting average for the year with RISP to .230, which is tied for 11th in the AL.

The Orioles have gone 4-6 each versus both the Yankees and Red Sox. Last year they went 4-6 against Tampa Bay. When they won the last game of the 2020 season between the teams, they snapped a six-game losing streak to the Rays. They have lost the season series to the Rays four years in a row. Last season, seven of the 10 games between the clubs were decided by two runs or less and the Orioles went 2-5 in those games.

The AL East against the AL East:

.667 - Boston (10-5)
.636 - Toronto (7-4)
.467 - Tampa Bay (7-8)
.440 - New York (11-14)
.400 - Orioles (8-12)

The Orioles are also 8-8 against the AL West and 1-3 versus the National League. They are 6-15 at home and 11-8 on the road. They have yet to win a home series, going 0-4-1 thus far. In series-opening games at home this year they are just 1-5 and looking to improve on that tonight.

The Orioles did some tweaking with their rotation and right-hander Matt Harvey (3-3, 4.81 ERA) will make tonight's start with an extra day of rest. Last Tuesday at Citi Field, Harvey allowed seven runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings versus the Mets. The Orioles are 4-4 in his eight starts this season. Harvey had pitched to an ERA of 1.72 in his three starts before facing the Mets.

On five days' rest this year, Harvey is 1-1 with an ERA of 0.90 in two starts. In 52 career starts on five days' rest, Harvey is 18-18 with a 4.02 ERA and 1.253 WHIP.

Harvey is using his fastball 63 percent this year at an average speed of 93 mph. He throws his four-seamer 39 percent and two-seam sinker 24 percent. He uses his slider 19 percent, changeup 10 percent and curveball 8 percent. Harvey is getting his best whiff rate (swings divided by swings and misses) on his slider at 32 percent.

Right-hander Luis Patiño (1-1, 1.54 ERA) will make his fifth appearance and third start for the Rays. For the year, he has thrown 11 2/3 innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs with two walks to 13 strikeouts. That is a WHIP of 0.686 and he is allowing just 4.6 hits per nine innings.

Patiño, 21, gave up two runs (one earned) in four innings on 65 pitches last Tuesday against the Yankees. Lefty batters are 0-for-7 against him while right-handers bat .182 with an OPS of .592 against him.

He is using his fastball 60 percent of the time with an average velocity of 95 mph with slider usage at 34 percent and changeup at six percent.

The Rays (23-19) have won four in a row and are coming off a three-game sweep of the Mets by a 22-8 score. They have scored 31 runs on 42 hits in winning four straight. The Rays were 13-15 on May 1, but are 10-4 since then.

While they have recorded 11 come-from-behind wins, Tampa Bay has also blown leads in eight of its losses. That ties their total from the 2020 season of 60 games.

The AL East is the only division in baseball with four teams recording at least 20 wins as four have at least 22 wins. It is also the only division with at least four teams posting a .500 or better record. The AL East is the lone division with at least four teams having a positive run differential, with three teams having run differentials of plus-20 or more.

According to ESPN's strength of schedule rankings. the AL East has three of the top four hardest schedules in the majors.

.530 - Tampa Bay
.523 - Baltimore
.517 - Toronto

Each team in the AL East has a winning record on the road. No other division has more than two teams with a winning road record.

Finally, happy birthday to a Hall of Fame player and person. Brooks Robinson is my all-time favorite Oriole and no one else, for me, will ever be atop that list.

We can debate who is greatest Oriole. My choice is this Hall of Famer. HBD to the legend. pic.twitter.com/MbR18vfZ9b

-- Steve Melewski (@masnSteve) May 18, 2021