The O's offense hits a bump in the road at Tampa and New York

Will the real Orioles offense stand up?

Pitching staffs with Tampa Bay and the New York Mets have been tough on O's bats recently. The Orioles' torrid stretch of producing runs has reached a five-game stretch with a lack of runs.

The Orioles have scored just 11 runs their last five games. Before that, they had scored 26 runs the previous two games, 42 over five games and 59 over a nine-game stretch.

Heading into the weekend series last Friday against Tampa Bay, the Orioles were leading the majors scoring 5.6 runs per game. Then, they have averaged 2.2 per game versus the Rays and Mets. Last night, the O's were held without an extra-base hit for the second time in five games.

They are batting just .220 the last five games. In the four games preceeding that, they had four straight games of double-figure hits, batting .351 and scoring 36 runs in those games.

It's been a flood of runs or a drought recently.

But if the 2015 Orioles hit at Yankee Stadium - where they begin a four-game series tonight - as the 2014 O's did, they'll get their offense going.

In going 6-4 at New York last year, the Orioles hit .296/.331/.482 with 15 doubles, a triple, 17 homers and 57 runs scored. That is 5.7 runs per game, and their 17 homers at Yankee Stadium was their most in any road park last season.

The Orioles hit well against Boston and in the no-fans game against Chicago. But the bats were slowed by Tampa Bay and the Mets. Now we'll see if the lumber gets going tonight in the Bronx.

J.J. Hardy and Ryan Flaherty: I saw Hardy and Flaherty play twice the last three nights at Double-A Bowie. They both played well, made a couple of nice plays in the field, hit the ball hard and looked ready to return to the Orioles. Hardy can be activated tonight, and it would be a surprise if he is not.

The Orioles could certainly use his Gold Glove play at short and also his bat right now.

Hardy normally would not be pleased to be fooled by a pitch and take a lunging, awkward swing at a baseball. But when it happened a few times the last few games against Akron, it provided a real test for his strained left shoulder. Extending the shoulder while swinging once caused discomfort for Hardy, but no longer.

He said last night he got a good test the past three nights and now he's ready to play his first big league game of 2015. He expects his timing at the plate to possibly be an issue, but he's ready to give it a go.

Flaherty also did well at Bowie and hit a two-run homer last night. He's ready to return as well and can be activated on Friday.

After losing two games at Citi Field, the Orioles are probably ready to get back these two players back, including their starting shortstop for the first time this year.