What's at stake

The Orioles will try to avoid their 70th loss tonight. They're currently 31-69 through 100 games. The historically bad 1988 team was 32-68 at this point. Putting this fine season in perspective, the Orioles need to finish 32-30 to avoid losing 100 games. They need to go 25-37 to avoid losing more games than the '88 team that finished 54-107. The '88 Orioles played their next 3 games against the Royals - this year's team will play the next four in Kansas City - and lost all three. They proceeded to sweep the Indians in a three-game series and won the first game against the Brewers. Jose Bautista is batting .326 with six homers and 15 RBIs against the Orioles this season. The Orioles have totaled four homers against the Jays. Again, a little perspective. Alex Gonzalez hit four homers against the Orioles and he isn't even with the Blue Jays anymore. The Orioles have scored 2 runs or fewer in nine of the 11 games against Toronto this season. Jeremy Guthrie better bring his best stuff tonight. Your weird stat of the day, courtesy of MASN's Kal Patel: Guthrie is 2-5 with a 3.56 ERA against the Blue Jays. He's 1-3 with a 3.56 ERA in Toronto and 2-2 with 3.56 ERA at home. He's pitched exactly 43 innings at Camden Yards and Rogers Centre and given up exactly 17 earned runs at both sites.