The Orioles have survived the West Coast trip, although they're not quite done against West division teams yet, either. The next two series will still be against those above-.500 West opponents - starting tonight with the Angels coming in to Camden Yards for a three-game set. The Blue Jays are keeping it close. The Yankees are not far out of the picture. The Rays, winners of nine of their last ten, refuse to die. The Orioles are just going to have to keep winning games.
Pitchers
RHP Jered Weaver, Angels
2014: 22 GS, 139.1 IP, 3.36 ERA, 110 SO, 38 BB, .225 BAA, 1.12 WHIP
Last start (vs. Orioles): 8 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO
It wasn't all that pretty the last time the O's faced Weaver, yet even for all of that, they were primed to beat him until the bullpen happened. Weaver, as good pitchers are wont to do, stayed in the game long enough for his offense to come back for him.
One big difference between this start and the last is that now Weaver is on the road, where he has a 4.45 ERA on the season, compared to his 2.66 at home. Get away from that marine layer and bad things start to happen. Still, though it's a late July game, we're not exactly in the midst of a heat wave in the Baltimore area, so there isn't going to be summer heat making the ball fly out of the stadium.
Maybe it'll go better, though - Weaver has allowed ten home runs in 54.2 innings in road games.
RHP Chris Tillman, Orioles
2014: 22 GS, 131 IP, 3.92 ERA, 83 SO, 51 BB, .245 BAA, 1.35 WHIP
Last start (at Angels): 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO
Perhaps returning to Camden Yards will do Tillman some good, as he has a 2.89 ERA here, although the team tends not to score many runs for him when he's having these good games at home. He's only allowed three home runs in 56 innings at home, holding batters to a .240/.308/.339, which will do just fine.
In general, Tillman has done a good job so far this year of cutting down his great scourge, the home run. Consider that last year he allowed 33 home runs in 206.1 innings, where this year it's 13 in 131 innings. Unfortunately for Chris, his walk rate is up a bit and his strikeout rate is down precipitously. He wastes a lot of pitches, which is why, unless he averages 7 innings per start from here on, he won't be hitting the 200+ inning mark again.
Lineups
No Chris Davis here, probably because he has a .445 OPS against Weaver in 34 career plate appearances. And also probably because over his last 28 days he's batting .178 and now rests below the Mendoza Line for the season. It's real bad out there.
Adam Jones has the best numbers of any Oriole against Weaver, with a .300/.318/.600 batting line in 22 plate appearances.