O's game blog: It's Gonzalez against Weaver in series finale

The Orioles will look to make it two series wins in two series on their West Coast road trip if they can beat Los Angeles this afternoon at Angels Stadium.

The Orioles got blanked on the second night of this trip at Oakland, but their offense has picked up lately. They've scored nine, zero, seven, four and five runs in going 3-2 on the trip. They are batting .301 on the trip, with seven homers and 25 runs scored.

A look at some hitters recently:

* Caleb Joseph is 8-for-15 over his last four starts, with three doubles, three homers and seven RBIs. Over his past 14 games, Joseph is batting .341 (15-for-44) with five homers and 17 RBIs.

* During a seven-game hitting streak, Jonathan Schoop is batting .522 (12-for-23) with three doubles, a homer and four RBIs.

* Over his last 17 games, Chris Davis is batting .311 (19-for-61) with nine homers and 26 RBIs.

* In 60 games since June 1, Manny Machado is batting .324 with 16 homers and 35 RBIs. Machado has hit 10 homers over his last 36 games. In two games this weekend against the Angels, Machado is 7-for-10, raising his average from .291 to .300.

On the mound today, Miguel Gonzalez (9-8, 4.32 ERA) pitches against Los Angeles right-hander Jered Weaver (4-8, 4.75 ERA). Both pitchers have struggled in their most recent outings.

Since coming off the disabled list in late June, Gonzalez is 4-4 with a 6.05 ERA in eight starts. He has thrown 5 1/3 or fewer innings in seven of his last nine starts, with just two quality starts in that time. Before he went on the DL, he was 5-4 with a 3.33 ERA in 12 starts.

Gonzalez has not faced the Angels this year. In four career starts, he is 3-1 with a 2.20 ERA, allowing just 16 hits and seven runs in 28 2/3 innings. He had made three of those starts on the road, going 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA.

Weaver, who comes off the DL today to make this start, had allowed four runs or more in four straight starts before the DL trip, going 0-4 with a 6.58 ERA. Over 26 innings, he gave up 31 hits, including six home runs. For the year, he has just seven quality starts in 15 outings.

Weaver has pitched well in his career versus the Orioles. He is 8-4 with a 3.27 ERA over 13 starts. He faced the Orioles on May 15 at Camden Yards and got a win. He went 7 1/3 innings, giving up just three hits and one run and throwing 83 pitches.

Ubaldo Jimenez allowed two hits over eight innings while holding the Angels scoreless on Saturday night. Right-hander Chris Tillman pitched a similar game at Detroit on July 18 (eight innings, one hit, no runs). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time the Orioles had two different pitchers have a game in which they pitched at least eight innings while allowing no more than two hits and no runs in the same season was in 1993 when Mike Mussina, Fernando Valenzuela (twice) and Ben McDonald all did so.