O's game blog: The series opener against Pittsburgh

In going 3-3 in the last two series against the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays, the Orioles won their series-opening game at Atlanta, but lost that series. They lost their series-opening game at home versus Tampa Bay, but won the last two games to take that series.

Baltimore enters a weekend series with Pittsburgh at 24-13 and playing .649 baseball. It is a pace that over a full season would produce 105 wins.

The Orioles are 2-1 this homestand, and over longer stretches have won 16 of 22, 18 of 25 and 20 of their past 28 games. With Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Tampa Bay they improved to 6-6 in games versus American League East teams and to 2-2 in four AL East series. The Orioles are 9-3 in series for the year, winning eight of their past nine. Their 24-13 record is third-best in the major leagues.

They are 11-1 in series-opening games and play one tonight to begin a three-game set with the Pirates, who are 8-4 in such games.

The Orioles are 11-5 at home and are 8-2 in their past 10 home games. They lost their first home series of the year against the New York Yankees, but have since won four in a row over Oakland, Detroit, Boston and Tampa Bay.

The Orioles are now 5-4 in May, 8-4 in one-run games and 4-3 in rubber-match games.

Pittsburgh, after going 62-100 last year and 61-101 in 2021, got off to a very fast and surprisingly good start this year. They opened with six wins in their first nine games, and on April 29 swept a doubleheader against Washington, winning Game 2 by a 16-1 score, to improve to a 20-8 record.

But the Pirates have just one win since that victory.

They lost the final game of their series with Washington and then were swept three in a row by Tampa Bay, scoring four runs in the whole series. They then lost three straight to Toronto, scoring three runs, and were 1-2 against Colorado, scoring six total runs. So they enter this series having lost two in a row and nine of their past 10 games.

They are 21-17 overall for the year with a plus-10 run differential.

In going 1-9, they have scored just 15 runs in those 10 games. They scored two runs or fewer nine times in that span and one run or none six times. They went 0-6 in that run vs. AL East teams and scored seven runs versus the Rays and Jays. The Pirates had a seven-game losing streak until they beat Colorado 2-0 on Monday before losing the next two in that series by 10-1 and 4-3 scores to the Rockies.

The Bucs are 10-9 at home and 11-8 on the road. Pittsburgh is 17-3 when scoring four runs or more, but just 4-14 when the total is three or fewer.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish (1-1, 5.95 ERA) gets the start for the O’s in the series opener. In five games this season he has thrown 19 2/3 innings, allowing 25 hits with nine walks and recording 18 strikeouts. He has allowed 1.729 WHIP with a 4.1 walk rate and 8.2 strikeout rate. The Orioles are 3-2 in his starts.

Last Saturday at Atlanta he gave up five hits and three runs over five innings, throwing 86 pitches. Lefty batters hit .300 with an .833 OPS off him, and right-handed batters hit .317/.900. In four home starts, Bradish is 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA.

Righty Johan Oviedo (2-3, 5.59 ERA) will make his eighth start for the visitors. In 37 innings in 2023, he has yielded 45 hits, but just three homers with 15 walks and 33 strikeouts. He has allowed 1.622 WHIP with an 0.7 homer rate, 3.6 walk rate and 8.0 strikeout rate.

His season got off to a great start but has recently taken a turn south. His ERA was 2.22 after four starts to begin the year. But in his past three games, he is 0-2 with a 12.08 ERA, allowing 25 hits in 12 2/3 innings with a .397 average against and .997 OPS.

The team is 3-4 in his games, and Saturday against Toronto he allowed 10 hits and seven runs (six earned) in five innings on 89 pitches.

The Orioles went 2-1 against the Pirates last August in Baltimore. And the Orioles are 11-2 all-time versus Pittsburgh at Oriole Park.