The Monday night Orioles game thread: at Twins, 8:10pm

Tonight's Twins starter, Phil Hughes, has allowed 19 home runs in 16 games started this year. In a rather strange statistical quirk, Hughes has surrendered nearly twice as many home runs as he has issued walks. That almost seems like it would have to be impossible over the span of 105.1 innings, but it's not. Hughes is chewing up innings by throwing strikes, having batters put the ball in play, and seeing what happens.

So far it hasn't gone great, as he's racked up a 4.27 ERA. It could have gone worse. However, Hughes' numbers are bad enough that he probably ought to make you nervous in the category of "bad pitcher who inexplicably dominates the Orioles." He is a bit better at home than on the road, but when a 3.76 ERA is your good side of your home/road split, where you at?

Nolan Reimold is off on the paternity list, meaning Ryan Flaherty is back with the team for at least a few days. Reimold's absence probably has little effect on tonight's starting lineup because Hughes is right-handed, meaning the O's are deploying their lefties into the outfield anyway. Even David Lough is getting a shot out there.

The Twins and the Orioles come into this series with identical records of 43-39. That seems like overachieving from the Twins and possibly it's underachieving for the Orioles, but maybe this is where they are supposed to be at this point in time. Hopefully by the end of the series the Orioles are supposed to be ahead of the Twins again.