O's game blog: Ubaldo Jimenez on the mound in road trip opener

Ubaldo Jimenez, who has a very poor career record against the Boston Red Sox, will try to turn that around tonight when the Orioles open a four-game series at Fenway Park.

Jimenez (1-0, 0.00 ERA) pitches against Red Sox right-hander Joe Kelly (1-0, 1.29 ERA) in the series opener.

In three starts against the Red Sox in 2014, Jimenez went 0-1 with a 6.10 ERA. Over 15 innings, he walked 12 and gave up four homers. In seven career starts, Jimenez is 1-3 with a 9.37 ERA versus the Red Sox with 23 walks over 32 2/3 innings.

Jimenez made an outstanding 2015 season debut for the Orioles, which followed his strong spring training performance. He pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit against Toronto last Saturday. He walked one, fanned eight and threw 96 pitches. Right-handed batters went 0-for-15 against him.

Kelly is also coming off a start where he allowed just one hit over seven innings. That was in Boston's 8-4 win over the Yankees Saturday when New York went just 1-for-21 against him. Kelly retired the last 17 batters he faced.

In 10 starts for the Red Sox in 2014, Kelly went 4-2 with an ERA of 4.11, allowing 6.9 hits per nine innings with 4.7 walks, much higher than his career walk rate of 3.3 per nine innings.

In two starts against the Orioles last year - the only two of his career - he went 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 13 1/3 innings.

The Orioles went 11-8 against Boston last year, including a 7-3 mark at Fenway Park. They have scored 32 runs while winning their last five games in Boston to move two wins shy of a club-record seven straight wins there from Sept. 20, 2011 to June 6, 2012.

The Red Sox began today atop the American League East at 6-3. They have gone 2-1 in each series, winning sets against the Phillies, Yankees and Nationals.

While Boston ranks second in the AL with 56 runs scored (the Orioles are sixth with 47), the Red Sox have allowed 50 runs to rank 29th in MLB. Boston starting pitchers rank 14th in the AL with an ERA of 6.16. O's starters rank eighth at 4.94.

Hobgood to DL: Just three games into his first Double-A season, pitcher Matt Hobgood has been placed on the disabled list at Bowie with a right shoulder impingement. Hobgood is 1-1 with a 2.84 ERA. He threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings in his first two Bowie games, but gave up two runs over one inning last night. And today, he goes on the disabled list.

The Orioles' 2009 first-round pick (fifth overall), Hobgood missed two weeks with Single-A Frederick last year due to shoulder tightness. He had shoulder surgery on April 2, 2012.

Minor league notes: Triple-A Norfolk (5-3) plays at Durham tonight with Zach Davies pitching. Tides starters have worked to an ERA of 1.37 the last five games with nine walks and 24 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings. Right-hander Steve Johnson has 10 strikeouts and one walk in 5 1/3 innings of relief. A win tonight would give the Tides a season-opening 6-3 road trip.

Double-A Bowie (4-4) hosts Erie tonight. Jimmy Paredes is joining the Baysox this evening for a brief rehab assignment before he is expected to join Norfolk tomorrow. After batting .364 for the Orioles during the spring, he is batting second and playing third base tonight. Branden Kline, who fanned 10 over five innings in his season debut, is tonight's Baysox starter with Dylan Bundy pitching Saturday night.

Single-A Frederick (6-2) has the best record on the O's farm and plays at Wilmington tonight. The Keys' six-game winning streak ended Thursday. Trey Mancini is hitting .314 (11-for-35) and paces the Carolina League in hits (11). The Notre Dame product also leads the league in total bases (21), is tied for the lead in extra-base hits (five) and home runs (two), and is third in RBIs (five).

Single-A Delmarva (5-3) plays at Greensboro. Former Calvert Hall star Alex Murphy is batting .276 with a homer and league-leading 11 RBIs. Murphy has eight RBIs his past five games. Delmarva leads the South Atlantic League with 32 walks and with a .356 OBP.