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The Orioles have allowed three runs over their last four games. That's a good way to win a few games. As we must painfully remember, they lost one in the middle there. Three out of four ain't bad. Four out of five would be even better.
Pitchers
RHP Drew Hutchison, Blue Jays
2014: 13 GS, 75 IP, 3.96 ERA, 67 SO, 23 BB, .243 BAA, 1.23 WHIP
Last start (vs. Cardinals): 3 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 HR, 1 BB, 1 SO
Hutchison has allowed five runs in two of his last three starts. He has a tendency to be a fly ball pitcher even when things are going well. The Orioles have not been hitting a ton of home runs at home up until this point, but maybe this will be the night that finally changes. There will be fireworks tonight after the game, at the very least.
He faced the Orioles back in April and gave up two runs in six innings. The Orioles then went berserk against the Jays bullpen. That is hardly a bad outcome. They don't do very good with chasing starters in general. Against a guy who strikes out more than 20% of the batters he faces, there's not much reason to believe that they will do so tonight. What they will probably do is chase pitches out of the zone.
By the way, Hutchison was picked in the 15th round of the 2009 draft.
RHP Ubaldo Jimenez, Orioles
2014: 13 GS, 70 IP, 5.01 ERA, 66 SO, 40 BB, .251 BAA, 1.53 WHIP
Last start (vs. Athletics): 2.1 IP, 2 H, 6 ER, 1 HR, 5 BB, 2 SO
If you think about it, it's actually kind of impressive to manage to give up six runs when you only allow two hits. Not the good kind of impressive, but still impressive. What is there to say about Ubaldo? He has been terrible a lot of the time. Sometimes he has been good. He has yet to justify the contract he was given, and we're long past his historically bad month of April.
Lineups
This is now several games in a row that non-Machado players have been batting second. Perhaps this is a change that will become more permanent.