Swept in Seattle, can O's rebound in Los Angeles?

SEATTLE - So the Orioles are 7-4 in their last 11 games but they got there in a streaky manner. They won seven in a row for the third time this year to tie a season best. Now they have lost four in a row for the second time to tie a season-worst.

Mark Trumbo was asked if he had any concerns about the team rebounding after the Seattle Mariners completed a four-game sweep of the Orioles on Sunday.

"I don't think so," Trumbo said. "It's one of those things and we've done that to other teams. You keep on going. It's obviously not what you want, but that's the way it went."

He also said he looks more at the big picture than looking at a week at a time or a series at a time. So right now, he sees a 47-34 record, a team on a 94-win pace and a team leading its division by three games.

"Very happy, very pleased," Trumbo said. "You have to look at the big picture and can't get too caught up in day to day and week to week. If you are to look at the overall picture, we've played excellent baseball. Really proud of the way guys have gone about it, day in and day out."

All you need to know about the Orioles' series at Safeco Field is that they hit four homers in four games and so did the Mariners' Seth Smith. Coming into this series, Smith had not homered in 23 games and had six homers on the year in 194 at-bats. Then he homered in each game against the Orioles, going 8-for-17 with four homers and 11 RBIs. During the series, his slugging percentage went from .392 to .455.

Seattle outscored the Orioles 31-15 in the series and hit 10 homers to the O's four. Seattle scored 21 runs over the last two days.

The way the Orioles pitching is giving up runs, it's hard for their offense to outscore teams. Center fielder Adam Jones was asked about that Sunday.

"It's not the easiest thing to say you have to get four runs when it's the eighth inning," Jones said. "Can we do it? Of course we can. And in that dugout, we believe we can. You see in the seventh we put pressure on them. They hit a grand slam, we come back with three."

But in the end, the O's scored six runs Saturday and four Sunday, and lost both games. Jones was asked if he could sense that the pitchers are frustrated with their poor performance in Seattle.

"It's not my field to talk about pitchers," he said. "They might want to talk about me. 'Why are you swinging at that?' That's not my field. I defend for them and whatever ball is put in play, I try to run through the wall for them.

"We've got a great pitching coach. Great bullpen coach. Helluva pitching staff in my opinion. This series wasn't their series. Now let's go to L.A. and do something different."

The Orioles will now face a Los Angeles Dodgers team that is playing good baseball at 47-37. The Dodgers have won four in a row, allowing just three runs. They are 14-5 their past 19 games and have won nine in a row at Dodger Stadium. That is the longest home win streak for the Dodgers since 13 straight from April 13-May 6, 2009.

During their four-game winning streak, Dodgers starters have been stellar, going 4-0 with an ERA of 0.39. Over a 23-inning stretch, Kenta Maeda, Bud Norris, Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy have allowed one just run.

The O's get a mulligan of sorts, starting over a new series tonight in Los Angeles. Will the tide turn back to winning for the club starting tonight?