Orioles played .679 ball in June and surged into first place

SEATTLE - For the Orioles, the month of June ended with Thursday's 5-3 loss to Seattle at Safeco Field, but what a month it was overall. It just may have set the tone for the Orioles to push toward a second American League East crown in three years.

Hyun Soo Kim's homer last night gave the O's a major league record 56 home runs in June, breaking their tie with the 1996 Oakland A's. But most important of all, the Orioles went 19-9 in during the month. When June started, they were in second place, three games behind. As it ends, they are in first place with a five-game lead.

But last night, no one was bragging about or gloating over their June surge.

"I think the big thing is playing well within our division, but we¹re not even halfway there yet," manager Buck Showalter said. "We have a lot of roads and a lot of challenges to be met, and our guys very maturely understand the reality of what's ahead of us instead of what is behind us."

Pitcher Chris Tillman said much of the same.

"Yeah, we've got a long way to go," he said. "We know we have to keep playing good baseball. We did have a good month, but we have to keep going. Got a long way to go."

Is the west the best?: The Orioles have a .500 or better record against every team in the American League East and Central. But they have a losing record against three of the five teams in the AL West. The Orioles are 0-3 versus Houston and 1-3 against both Seattle and Texas. That makes them 2-9 against that trio and 45-22 versus everyone else.

Tillman's tough time: Tillman's bid to make the All-Star team has taken a hit over his last three starts. He allowed four runs in 4 2/3 last night and took his first career loss against Seattle.

Over his past three outings, he has these numbers: 14 2/3 innings, 21 hits, 14 runs, four homers, five walks and nine strikeouts. Opposing batters are hitting .339 against him in these three starts after batting just .220 off him before that.

I asked him last night if opposing batters have made some recent adjustments against him.

"No, I don't think so," he said, as he fell to 7-1 with a 3.38 ERA in his career against the Mariners. "I just haven't been able to make the pitches when I need to. Last start, maybe three or four 0-2 hits and a couple on 1-2. Those are counts pitchers dream of being in, just making a pitch to put a guy away or get him out. Tonight, kind of the same thing. Just not able to command my off-speed stuff."

Machado marches on: Orioles third baseman Manny Machado is on some run at bat right now. He has a 10-game hitting streak during which he has nine multi-hit games after going 2-for-4 last night. During the streak, Machado is batting .523 (23-for-44) with four doubles, a homer, 10 runs and nine RBIs. It is his fifth career hitting streak of 10 or more games.

Machado just concluded a month of June where he hit .370 with an OPS of .996 in 24 games. Machado is batting .334 for the season, fourth-best in the AL.