Series preview: O's versus A's

The Orioles begin a six-game west coast road trip with a three-game series at Oakland tonight. Now that they have reached the .500 mark at 24-24 with a five-game win streak, the O's could go over that mark tonight. A win would put Baltimore over the .500 mark for the first time since the Orioles were 6-5 on April 14. The Orioles are now 58-47 (.552) in 105 games since Buck Showalter took over last August as manager. Vladimir Guerrero is batting .380 during an 11-game hitting streak and Nick Markakis is hitting .362 during an 11-game batting streak. Adam Jones is batting .369 with nine extra-base hits over his last 15 games. The Orioles' team ERA is 2.06 during the five straight wins and the O's bullpen has pitched 15 straight scoreless innings over the last four games. The Orioles, who are now in fourth place ahead of Toronto, last had a six-game win streak from April 2-8, 2008. Oakland just split a four-game series with Los Angeles and is 24-27, in fourth and last place in the American League West, but just 2 1/2 games back of Texas. The A's have lost 10 of their past 15 games and are 11-12 at home. Oakland has a tremendous team ERA on the year of 2.87 which leads major league baseball and they easily lead the AL where Los Angeles is second at 3.36. A's starting pitchers lead the majors with an ERA of 2.56 and over the last eight games. Oakland starters have allowed one earned run or less seven times with an ERA of 1.61 during that impressive run. Oakland has struggled on offense and has scored just 21 runs with a team average of only .225 over the last nine games. Oakland has just four homers over its last 14 games. The Orioles are just 5-17 over the last three years against Oakland and have lost 27 of their last 36 games at Oakland, including a 1-9 mark the last three years. Series pitching matchups: Tonight at 10:05 p.m. - Chris Tillman (2-3, 4.95) vs. Gio Gonzalez (5-2, 2.20) Saturday at 9:05 p.m. - Brad Bergesen (1-5, 5.64) vs. Josh Outman (0-0, 1.29). Sunday at 4:05 p.m. - Zach Britton (5-2, 2.35) vs. Guillermo Moscoso (1-0, 0.00). What is your take: How well will the Orioles do this time at Oakland? What record will they have on this road trip?