The Baltimore Orioles look to maintain their success at Camden Yards when they began a nine-game homestand on Friday with the opener of a three-game set against the Seattle Mariners
The Orioles are 22-13 at home this season, a .629 winning percentage that puts them third in the American League behind the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays (32-9, .780) and the AL West-leading Texas Rangers (24-13, .649)
Baltimore, which also has three-game sets against the red-hot Cincinnati Reds, who lead the National League Central, and the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins during its homestand, is coming off a 7-2 loss at Tampa Bay on Wednesday.
The Rays took a 4-0 lead in the second inning, and Baltimore never threatened. The Orioles were held to just four hits and committed two errors. Baltimore went 2-3 during its road trip against the Chicago Cubs and the Rays
"We didn't play very well today, and those games are going to happen," Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said.
The Orioles will turn to Kyle Gibson (8-4, 3.94 ERA) for the series opener against the Mariners, who are coming off a 10-2 shellacking of the host New York Yankees on Thursday. The victory allowed Seattle to avert a three-game sweep
Gibson hasn't allowed more than three runs in any of his past six starts, including when he held the Cubs to three runs on three hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over six innings in a 3-2 loss on Saturday.
The right-hander is 4-4 with a 3.77 ERA in 13 starts spanning 74 innings against the Mariners in his career
The Mariners will counter with Logan Gilbert (4-4, 4.31 ERA), who will be making his first career appearance against the Orioles. The right-hander held the visiting Chicago White Sox to two runs on six hits with three strikeouts and three walks in 5 1/3 innings during the Mariners' 4-3, 11-inning loss on Saturday
The toughest test for Gilbert, who is 16-4 with a 3.90 ERA in 37 career starts on the road, may be facing Baltimore's Gunnar Henderson.
After hitting .201 with five home runs and 14 RBIs in 50 games through the end of May, the third baseman has exploded in June.
He is hitting .359 (19-for-53) with six home runs and 13 RBIs in the 14 games this month. The Orioles have seven games left in June
The Mariners played one of their best games of the season on Thursday
Teoscar Hernandez went 3-for-4 with a homer, two runs and two RBIs, while Eugenio Suarez had two hits and drove in two runs.
Cal Raleigh and Kolten Wong each homered and finished with two hits to back rookie right-hander Bryan Woo, who held the Yankees scoreless for 5 1/3 innings.
"Every game is important, but when you're playing against teams of this caliber, (given) how close we are to them, we should put a little more emphasis on these," said Seattle first baseman Ty France, who also homered in the rout. "Not saying that we need to put more pressure on ourselves, but we need to hold ourselves more accountable and treat these games as if they're playoff games."
--Field Level Media