Will the search for a series win end in Houston?

The Houston Astros have not lost a home series all year. Could it be the Baltimore Orioles are the first team to change that stat?

Yep, the Orioles have a chance today to win a series at Houston after they followed an 11-inning loss Friday night with Saturday's 4-1 victory at Minute Maid Park. Renato Núñez hit his ninth homer in the last 18 games to give them a 1-0 lead in the sixth, and Richie Martin's second homer in four games and third of the year was big. Martin hit a two-run shot in the ninth that provided insurance and a 2-1 lead turned into a 4-1 edge.

So today, if the O's can pull off the win, they will end a long run in which they have not won a series, and a long run in which Houston has not lost one. Since they took two of three April 22-24 versus the White Sox, the O's have lost 11 series and tied one, going 0-11-1. Houston is 9-0-1 since April 29-May 2, when they lost three of four at Minnesota. In home series this year, Houston is 7-0-2 with a 23-9 record, which is the best home mark in the American League.

In the three series before this one, the Orioles won the opening game only to lose the next two and go 0-3 for those series. So maybe they decided to try a different strategy here. Lose the series opener and come back and win the next two.

A win today would also give the Orioles a .500 road trip and would mean they posted a 3-3 record against the Rangers and Astros. That would be respectable against two teams that currently hold American League playoff spots.

Are the Orioles getting a little better as the mid-point of the year approaches?

O's pitchers, who allowed 11 runs in a win Tuesday night at Texas, have now allowed a total of 11 runs over the past four games. Their starting pitchers in those contests - John Means, David Hess, Gabriel Ynoa and Andrew Cashner - have recorded four consecutive quality starts. That is a season-high run for a starting staff that had just 12 quality starts on the year as this run began.

While the starters have thrown exactly six innings and pitched solidly these past four games, the bullpen has held its own as well. The 'pen ERA is 1.17 in this span, as O's relievers have allowed just two earned runs over 15 1/3 innings.

Sure, this all has happened within a very small sample size. But during a year when there have been numerous opportunities to post negative or troubling stats, we should take a second to acknowledge when the reverse is true. Finally true.

The O's have had an interesting run on this road trip. Four straight one-run games and a fifth that almost ended up that way, before Martin's homer in the ninth turned it instead into a three-run win.

The Orioles will take it. They finally have 20 wins and we finally have a few positive things to note and discuss.