O's game blog: Orioles look for a third straight win against Oakland

The Orioles have won the first two games of this series with Oakland with walk-off victories on homers in the 13th on Friday by Manny Machado and in the ninth last night by Chris Davis.

Davis now has 11 career multi-home run games (four this season) and has hit three career walk-off home runs. He also hit walk-off homers on June 23, 2014 against the White Sox and on May 14, 2009 versus Seattle as a member of the Texas Rangers.

Davis' recent hot streak is something never before seen in O's history, at least over a stretch of 23 games. Davis has now produced 15 home runs and 35 RBIs in that 23-game span. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no other player in Orioles franchise history has ever accumulated that many homers and RBIs over a 23-game span. Only outfielder Brady Anderson belted as many as 15 homers over a 23-game run and that was in 1996.

In this series, Davis is 5-for-10 with three homers and five RBIs. In 13 games in August, he is batting .354 with nine homers, 18 RBIs, a .958 slugging percentage and a 1.405 OPS.

The Orioles are now 59-56 and have won 13 of their last 20 games. A win today and the Orioles would improve to four games over .500 for the first time since they were 43-39 on July 5.

The Orioles have homered six times in this series. They now have multi-homer games in seven of their last eight games, hitting 16 in that time. They have two or more homers in 13 of their last 17 games, hitting 30 in that span.

On the mound today, Wei-Yin Chen (6-6, 3.21 ERA) makes his 23rd start pitching against right-hander Kendall Graveman (6-8, 3.89 ERA).

This is a pitching rematch from Aug. 5 when the Orioles beat the A's 7-3 in 10 innings. In that game, Chen went five innings, allowing four hits and three runs. Graveman went 5 2/3 allowing six hits and three runs.

Chen is coming off a strong outing on Monday at Seattle. He got the win, going 7 1/3 innings, and gave up just three hits and one run, throwing a season-high 111 pitches.

Chen leads the Orioles with 14 quality starts and the O's are 14-8 when he starts. In six career starts versus Oakland, Chen is 4-0 with a 2.19 ERA.

Minors matters: The Orioles' top two farm teams, Triple-A Norfolk and Double-A Bowie continue to hold comfortable leads atop their respective divisions and are closing in on playoff berths. Norfolk, 70-50 and leading its division by 5 1/2 games, is chasing its first playoff berth since 2005. Bowie is 68-51 and leading its division by 4 1/2 games.

Two others O's affiliates are close to making the playoffs. Single-A Frederick is 26-23 and two games behind in the second-half race in the Carolina League. Short season Single-A Aberdeen is 27-27 and just a half-game out of first place in the New York-Penn League. Aberdeen will host the All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Ripken Stadium.

Norfolk leads the International League with a 2.97 team ERA. Only once since the Tides joined the IL has the club posted a sub-3.00 team ERA, as the 1975 Tidewater Tides registered a 2.77 ERA while going 86-55.

In Bowie's win last night, Cuban-born left-hander Ariel Miranda gave up just one run in seven innings against Harrisburg. Miranda is now 3-1 with a 1.57 ERA in five Baysox starts. Over 28 2/3 innings, he has walked nine and fanned 29.