The bullpen was good again and other O's notes

When Bud Norris went just four innings on Wednesday night it meant the Orioles' bullpen would have to pitch five innings in that game. Brad Brach and Brian Matusz combined to go five in a game the Orioles would lose 6-2. Why was that important? Because when you combine Tuesday's rainout with the job Brach and Matusz did in a loss, it meant the O's late inning bullpen guys got two days of rest. That helped the threesome of Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day and Zach Britton be effective last night. Man, they were effective. In the O's 4-3 win over the Nationals, they combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings, and got several key outs. Wilson Ramos had two big chances in that game, but Hunter got him out with a man on second and the O's leading 4-3 in the sixth. O'Day got him with the bases loaded in the eighth. After the game, O'Day talked about his approach during that key at bat with Ramos at the plate. "He's a dangerous hitter," O'Day said. "Had a good shot at getting (Ian) Desmond out the batter before and unfortunately I hit him. Hope he's all right. He's a young, talented player and is going to have a good year. But Ramos, you know, struck him out on a fastball the other night. Tonight I got him to fly out on a slider. Really against good hitters like that, you are just trying to induce weak contact." Another night, another game where the O's bullpen contributed big time to a victory. "Yeah, we like where we're at. We've got a pretty good mix of guys down there," O'Day said. "Some guys that are stretched out. Top to bottom, we've got some pretty talented guys. We're a confident 'pen right now. Kind of feed off each other and keep it going." The Orioles won two of three games this week against the Nationals in games that were very competitive in front of big crowds played by two first-place teams. It has turned into a good regional rivalry. "Very much so," O'Day said. "That second one didn't go the way we were hoping. The first game especially, I thought the atmosphere there was like a playoff game. We talked about it in here, that was a pretty cool night. To take two out of three from them is obviously exciting." Hunter has made 10 straight appearances over 12 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run. He has walked one and fanned 12 in a stretch that has seen his ERA drop from 6.52 to 3.98. O'Day, who has the best reliever ERA in the American League at 1.11, has struck out a batter in eight straight games, a season high for an O's bullpen pitcher. Over his last 10 games, O'Day has thrown 11 consecutive scoreless innings with two walks and 15 strikeouts. Britton, since suffering a blown save June 20 at New York, has pitched nine straight scoreless innings on just four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Britton is 6-for-6 in save chances in that stretch. To get those saves he needed a small amount of pitches, getting them on 14, 10, 10, 17, 10 and 11 pitches. The 'pen did the job again. The Orioles seem to be able to say that a lot lately. More notes on the O's: * The Orioles improved to 50-41 with the win which was their fourth in the last five games and eighth in the last 10. They are 13-6 the last 19 games and 24-14 since May 31. * The Orioles will at least tie the four-game season series against the Nationals. Before this season they won four and tied two season series against Washington since 2008. The O's are 9-4 in the series since 2012 and 20-11 since 2009. * Steve Pearce hit his 11th homer in the first inning last night. In the first inning this year, Pearce is 8-for-20 with three homers, four RBIs, a .950 slugging percentage and a 1.470 OPS. His three homers in that inning are more than in any other inning. * Nelson Cruz picked up his 74th RBI last night with a third-inning single. That is the sixth-most RBIs in O's history before the All-Star break. Cruz has 51 RBIs in road games and 23 at home. Now, the O's begin a key series tonight at the Yard against the New York Yankees. The Orioles lead the AL East by three games over Toronto, and four over New York. While the Orioles have already played six home games against Tampa Bay and Boston, and seven against Toronto, this is New York's first 2014 visit to Camden Yards. The O's are 4-2 in 2014 against the Yankees and 24-17 in AL East games.