With seven wins in nine games, O's begin key road trip tonight

ANAHEIM, Calif. - After a successful end to the homestand with Sunday's 12-3 win over the Tigers, tonight the Orioles begin an important 10-game, 10-day, three-city West Coast road trip.

Taken in whole, it will be an important 10 games. If the club can have a winning road trip at 6-4 or better, they will return to Baltimore as an over .500 team. Anything less than that and they will return still under the .500 mark. At 55-56, tonight the Orioles look to get back to the .500 mark for the first time since they were 39-39 on June 29.

Three times in the last few years the Orioles went on a road trip with three straight West Coast series. From April 25-May 5, 2013, they went 7-4 at Oakland, Seattle and Anaheim. From July 18-27, 2014, they went 6-4 at Oakland, Anaheim and Seattle. From Aug. 3-12, 2015, they went 4-5 at Oakland, Anaheim and Seattle.

This trip begins tonight with three against the Angels in Anaheim followed by four in Oakland and then three at Seattle. The Orioles went 3-8 at those venues last season. But since 2012, they are a combned 28-29 at those ballparks.

The longball certainly returned to the offense the past few days, with the Orioles hitting two homers Friday, three Saturday and five in the first four innings on Sunday. When the Orioles hit two or more home runs in a game this season, they are 31-12.

In winning the last two games against the Tigers, the offense produced 17 runs, 28 hits, seven doubles and eight homers.

Third baseman Manny Machado had a season-high five RBIs yesterday, when he went 4-for-5 with a double and home run. Machado was batting .205 on May 31 and .215 on July 6, but his average is now up to .257.

In 91 at-bats since the All-Star break, Machado is batting .352/.398/.505 with eight doubles, two homers, 14 RBIs and with an OPS of .904.

They certainly were not pitch efficient, but at least Wade Miley and Ubaldo Jiménez limited Tigers runs the last two games, allowing a combined three runs over 10 2/3 inning on a combined 218 pitches.

So the Orioles starting rotation continues to finally put up some good numbers. Over the last nine games, O's starters have allowed two earned runs or less eight times with an ERA of 1.95. The rotation ERA is 3.13 the last 13 games.

The O's staff could get a real challenge from the Angels when the series begins tonight. Over their last 16 games, Los Angeles has scored seven or more runs nine times, including Sunday's 11-10 loss to Oakland. The Angels are averaging 5.7 runs per game the last 16 contests.

The Angels held a 10-5 lead on the A's in the seventh inning Sunday but gave up six unanswered runs late to lose that game. Former Oriole Bud Norris suffered a blown save. Another former Oriole, right-hander Parker Bridwell, who is 5-1 with a 3.20 ERA, will start against the Orioles here on Tuesday night.

It was eight days ago when the Orioles were the opponent when Adrian Beltre got his 3,000th career hit. As this series begins in Anaheim, Mike Trout is at 999 hits. Trout turns 26 today. He is the first player ever to compile 150 or more homers and 150 or more stolen bases before his 26th birthday.

The Royals still hold the second American League wild card but by just a half-game over the Rays, 1 1/2 games over the Mariners, 2 1/2 games over the Orioles and three games over the Angels.