Will O's momentum on offense carry into the weekend?

When the Orioles scored a season-high nine runs last Sunday at home versus Boston, they followed up that game by scoring one and two in the next two games against Minnesota. But when they tied that season high by scoring nine runs on Wednesday night, they came back the next night and hit five solo homers in Thursday’s 5-3 win.

The Orioles scored 14 runs the last two games against Minnesota's good pitching staff, one that was having a heckuva year until the last two nights. The Twins, as a result of those games, dropped to fourth in team ERA in the American League at 3.36.

But Kansas City, which faces the Orioles for three games over the next two days in Baltimore, ranks last in the AL in team ERA at 4.57 and last in WHIP at 1.36. The Royals' rotation ERA ranks 13th at 4.32.

Kansas City, since going 5-5 to begin the season, has lost 10 of 13 games and is 1-5 over its last six games. Can the O’s now take advantage of another team considered more on their level that is now struggling? We begin to find out tonight.

There are signs the O’s offense is continuing to trend up, as we’ve written about over the last week or so.

The club scored just 24 runs the first 12 games but has now scored 64 over the past 14 games, for 4.57 per game. And in the season’s first 18 games, the Orioles had 10 hits or more zero times. They have now had double-digit hits in four of their past eight games. They hit four homers combined over the season's first 15 games and then hit five on Thursday night. They’ve homered 14 times the last 11 games.

Here are some O’s individual hitting notes:

* Austin Hays is 5-for-11 his past three games. He is batting .387 (12-for-31) with a .992 OPS his last eight games. He has three homers his last 11 games. He hit his fourth career go-ahead homer in the seventh inning or later on Thursday.

* Trey Mancini is batting .313 (10-for-32) with an .809 OPS his last eight games. He has a double, homer and six RBIs in that span.

* Ryan Mountcastle is 4-for-8 the last two games. In those two nights alone he raised his OPS from .568 to .676. And his two-homer game Thursday was his fourth career multi-homer game and first since last Aug. 24 versus the Los Angeles Angels.

* Cedric Mullins has a six-game hitting streak, the longest by an Oriole this year. He is batting .385 (10-for-26) during this span with four doubles, two homers and three RBIs. He’s homered in back-to-back games for the sixth time in his career and first Sept. 6-7, 2021 against Kansas City. Mullins has an extra-base hit in three straight games, with two doubles and two home runs.

* Rougned Odor is batting .300 (6-for-20) with an OPS of .900 during a five-game hitting streak. He has one double, a triple and a homer during this run.

After last night’s rainout, right-hander Jordan Lyles (2-2, 4.50 ERA) gets the start in Saturday night’s game. The O’s will start Tyler Wells (0-2, 4.50 ERA) and Bruce Zimmermann (1-1, 2.59 ERA) in Sunday’s doubleheader with the order to be determined.