The Orioles have not won a season series against the A's since 1998

Is it time for the Orioles to Buck a trend (pun intended) against Oakland? It is not like the A's have been a juggernaut over the years but they have won a lot of games against the Orioles. The O's went 4-5 vs. Oakland last year and they have not won the season series since 1998, going 8-3. The Orioles are 2-14 at Oakland since 2008 and went 1-5 there last year. Also, the Orioles have lost 25 of their last 36 vs. Oakland and are just 38-80 against Oakland since 1999. That is a lot of losing to one club but this season the Orioles are 3-3 against the A's, winning and losing one series at Camden Yards. The A's have a solid pitching staff but the Orioles have hit .295, scoring 33 runs in the six games. The A's 5.79 ERA this year vs. the Orioles is their second worst against any club in 2012 except for their 7.30 mark in three games against Arizona. Both teams enter this series playing very well. The A's have won six of seven, 15 of 19 and 21 of the last 27. The Orioles have won four of five, eight of 11 and 20 of the last 29. A few other O's notes: * After going six games without a quality start the Orioles have now gotten two in a row from Miguel Gonzalez and Wei-Yin Chen. The Orioles are 59-8 this year when they get a quality start and 33-2 when their starter goes seven innings or more. * The Orioles are 36-22 since the All-Star break while the A's are 39-18. * In the Tampa series, the Orioles team ERA was 1.69 as their starters gave up five earned runs over 17 innings and the bullpen allowed just one earned run over 15 innings for an 0.60 ERA. Remarkably, the Orioles have not allowed more than two runs in a game to Tampa for the last seven games. The Rays have scored a total of 10 runs, going 1-6 vs. the Orioles, in that time. * The Orioles are batting .333 (24-for-72) with runners in scoring position over the last nine games. * Mark Reynolds is 1-for-14 with nine strikeouts over his last four games. But he has still hit five homers in his last nine games, nine in the last 13 and 12 over his past 28 games. * Nate McLouth batted .370 (10-for-27) with four doubles during the O's just completed seven-game homestand. Over his past 11 games he is batting .341 (14-for-41) with five doubles and four RBIs. * Adam Jones went 0-for-5 yesterday to end a 10-game batting streak during which he hit .341 with three homers and six RBIs. Jones has 16 RBIs over his last 27 games.