SEATTLE – As the city of Seattle should know, defense wins championships.

Wait, sorry, wrong sport. Defense sometimes wins baseball games, as it nearly did tonight for the Baltimore Orioles. The offense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain in a 2-0 loss, in which the Birds mustered just one total hit. 

"We're playing really well defensively," said manager Brandon Hyde. "That's why we're staying in games, pitching and defense is still extremely important, and we've been doing that." 

"I wouldn't be able to do it without the help of the defense," added Dean Kremer. "They're spectacular." 

Entering tonight’s game, Kremer had posted a 1.71 ERA through his first four starts of the season. In the same sample size, Robbie Ray boasted a 1.80 ERA in his previous four starts. They both pitched as their resumés would suggest on Tuesday night. 

As the Orioles continue to play winning baseball and are 21-16 since May 19, they are compiling a number of good stats on both the pitching and hitting sides. Let’s take a look at several of them as they get set tonight to play the second game of a three-game series at Seattle.

A 21-16 record produces a win percentage of .568 over a 37-game span, which is nearly a quarter of the season. A team that could play at that percentage for 162 games would finish 92-70.

The Orioles' 9-2 win last night at Seattle gives them a 35-40 record and they have won five of six, six of eight and eight of 11 games. The Orioles are now 11-5 the last 16 games and 13-8 over their past 21. While they have an overall losing record in road games at 17-23, they are 11-7 in their past 18 games away from Oriole Park and they are 4-1 to start this 10-game road trip.

The Baltimore pitching staff has put together a stunning run with a team ERA of 1.99 over the last 11 games, and they have allowed two runs or less in eight of those games. O’s pitchers have allowed nine combined runs the last six games, 13 in eight and 22 runs over the last 11 games.

In addition to that, the O’s starting pitchers have an ERA of 1.82 over the last eight games. And the Baltimore bullpen has allowed zero or one earned run for 13 consecutive games with an ERA of 1.34 in those 13 games and 0.93 over the past six games.

The Orioles received their biggest hit today a few hours before the game started, learning that baseball’s top pitching prospect, Grayson Rodriguez, might miss a significant portion of the season with a strained lat muscle.

A delayed debut stung worse than a fastball to the ribs, but the Orioles had the major league side of business to occupy them. Players on the 26-man roster trying to win a home series against the Mariners. Manager Brandon Hyde tasked with guiding them through it.

Process the news and move on from it.

The Orioles led twice through the midpoint of the game and rallied for three runs in the sixth to create another tie, their ability to bounce back from adversity not limited to past losses, but the Mariners scored against Jorge López in the 10^th and won 7-6 at Camden Yards.

López retired the first five batters he faced, but the automatic runner came home in the 10^th on Abraham Toro’s one-out triple to center field, the ball deflecting off Cedric Mullins’ glove near the fence. López had two runners in scoring position with two outs and stranded them, and his ERA tumbled to 1.05 after he worked 2 1/3 innings.

Sure the Orioles mashed four homers last night in a 9-2 win over Seattle and sure they even crushed a couple of balls over the left-field wall. That seems to make news around here these days.

But maybe the biggest development for the Orioles came on a single and double. Because they came off the bat of center fielder Cedric Mullins. He set a very high bar for himself going 30-30 last season and winning unanimously the Most Valuable Oriole award.

But Mullins was hitting just .169 with an OPS of .410 his previous 16 games, going 11-for-65, when game time on Wednesday rolled around. Then lefty Robbie Ray made Mullins look bad in the last of the first when he chased a slider down and struck out.

His average had dropped to .236 and his OPS to .662.

But when I interviewed Mullins about his offense before the game last night I found a player not stressing or pressing. One still confident and one feeling that a couple of very good swings he had put on balls that were caught on Tuesday night was going to be a good sign for him.