BALTIMORE ORIOLES GAME NOTES Oriole Park at Camden Yards 333 West Camden Street Baltimore, MD 21201
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BALTIMORE ORIOLES GAME NOTES Oriole Park at Camden Yards 333 West Camden Street Baltimore, MD 21201 Wednesday, June 4, 2014 Game #57 Road Game #34 Baltimore Orioles (29-27) vs. Texas Rangers (29-29) RH Bud Norris (3-5, 4.04) vs. RH Nick Martinez (1-1, 2.75) TONIGHT’S GAME: The Orioles and Rangers meet in game two of their three-game set and the ninth game of a ODDS & ENDS 10-game, 11-day road trip that began with the Birds going 1-2 in Milwaukee and 2-2 in Houston…The Orioles Home 11-12 have won three straight entering tonight’s game. Away 18-15 Day 9-12 VS. TEXAS: The Orioles lead the season series, 1-0…In 2013, the Orioles won the season series, 5-2, going 2-2 Night 20-15 in Baltimore and 3-0 in Arlington…The Orioles lead the all-time series, 242-193 (120-98 in Baltimore and 122-95 vs. LHP 7-7 in Arlington)…At Camden Yards against the Rangers, the Birds are 53-52, and at Globe Life Park, the Orioles are vs. RHP 22-20 41-49 in regular season play. Series Record 6-7-5 First game of series 11-8 HIT MEN: The Birds recorded 17 hits Tuesday, the second-most in a game this year behind their 20-hit outburst Last game of a series 9-9 in New York on April 8…The Birds have pounded out 29 hits over the last two games, the second-most over a Last 10 games 5-5 two-game span this year behind the 32 hits April 8-9 in New York…Of the six games this year where the Birds have recorded 14 or more hits, five have come on the road...Adam Jones recorded the 12th four-hit game of his Win/Loss streak W3 career Tuesday, and his second of the year (also April 20 at Boston). Longest win streak 5 (5/6-10) Longest losing streak 4 (last: 5/27-30) DYNAMIC DUO: Nelson Cruz leads the majors with 21 homers in 2014 after Chris Davis led the majors with Most games over .500 6 (20-14) Most games under .500 3 (last 2-5) 53 in 2013…The last team to have two different players lead the majors (or tie for the lead) in homers in consecutive seasons was the 1993-94 San Francisco Giants as Barry Bonds and Juan Gonzalez (Texas) tied for Extra innings 5-2 the MLB lead with 46 in 1993 and Matt Williams led the majors with 43 in 1994. Shutouts 3-4 One-run games 11-8 RBI GUY: With his three RBI on Tuesday, Nelson Cruz has 55 RBI in his 55 games played this year… Two-run games 5-6 According to Elias, since the Orioles arrived in Baltimore in 1954, their only other player to be averaging an RBI per game as far into the season as Cruz is Jim Gentile, who was in attendance last night, and had 126 RBI in his Lead after 7 innings 21-3 Tied after 7 innings 7-2 first 126 games in 1961, before finishing with 141 in 148 games. Trail after 7 innings 1-22 Lead after 8 innings 25-2 EN FUEGO: Nelson Cruz has hit in 18 of his last 20 games (only had one at-bat in one of the hitless games), Tied after 8 innings 3-2 batting .394 (28-71) with seven doubles, 11 homers, 17 runs scored and 25 RBI…He had a 12-game streak Trail after 8 innings 1-23 snapped Sunday when he was hit by a pitch and left the game after one at-bat…Cruz batted .476 (20-42) with nine walks, six doubles, eight homers, 15 RBI and 14 runs scored during the 12-game streak…Cruz leads MLB in Orioles score first 18-8 home runs (21), RBI (55), homers on the road (14) and RBI on the road (42)…Cruz has recorded six consecutive Opponent scores first 11-19 seasons with 21 or more homers. Score four or more runs 21-8 Score fewer than four runs 8-19 CONGRATULATIONS: Nelson Cruz was named American League Player of the Week for the week ending Orioles homer 23-13 June 1…It was his second career Player of the Week Award (also for the week ending May 23, 2010 with Outhit opponents 21-6 Texas)…Cruz batted .476 (10-for-21) with three doubles, four home runs, four walks, eight RBI and five runs Equal hit total 4-4 scored in seven games last week. Outhit by opponents 4-17 Most hits in a game 20 (4/8) IN THE CLUTCH: The Orioles lead the majors with a .285 team batting average with runners in scoring position Fewest hits in a game 3 (5/17) (123-431)…Per STATS, the Birds have never led the AL in RISP average in the 40 years the statistic has been No errors 22-13 tracked…The Birds finished second in 2009 (.284), 2008 (.287), 1993 (.282) and 1985 (.288)…The Orioles lead With one error 7-10 the majors in batting average on the road (.279), slugging on the road (.438) and OPS on the road (.767). With two errors 0-3 With three or more errors 0-1 MONSTER MAY: Nelson Cruz had 52 RBI through May, setting a club record for most RBI through the month of May…Cruz passed Chris Davis’ 50 in 2013with his bases loaded walk Saturday. vs. AL 25-24 vs. AL East 13-8 MAGIC NUMBER: The Orioles are 21-8 (.724) when scoring four or more runs and 8-19 (.296) when scoring vs. AL Central 7-13 three or fewer runs. vs. AL West 5-3 vs. NL 4-3 WORM BURNER: Zach Britton leads the majors (minimum 15 batters faced) in groundball-to-flyball ratio (12.8) and ground ball percentage (79.0%)…Opponents have batted .180/.255/.230 against him this season, Largest home crowd *46,685 (3/31) Largest road crowd *48,142 (4/07) collecting just three extra-base hits (two doubles and one home run) in 112 plate appearances. CURRENT ROAD TRIP BIG BOPPERS: Since Opening Day 2013, Chris Davis (12.27) and Nelson Cruz (12.94) rank first and second in the majors, respectively, in at-bats per home run…Davis leads the majors in that time with 60 home runs in 202 Record 4-4 games played, and Cruz is fourth with 48 despite playing in just 164 games. Team Average .276 (79-286) Runs per Game 4.9 (39R/8G) DEALING DUO: Darren O’Day ranks second (0.79; 22.2IP, 2ER) and Zach Britton ranks third (0.91; 29.2IP, 3ER) in relief ERA in the A.L…Former Oriole and Ranger Koji Uehara leads at 0.76 (23.2IP, 2ER). Fielding Errors 5 FIRST IS THE BEST: Nick Markakis is batting .426 (23-54) with five runs, three doubles, and an RBI in the Team ERA 4.33 (70.2IP, 34ER) first inning this season…23 of his 72 hits this year have come in the opening frame…In his career, Markakis is a Starters W-L 2-2 .317 hitter in 138 games in the leadoff spot, his second-highest mark of any spot in the order behind the eighth Starters ERA 4.02 (47.0IP, 21ER) position, where he hit .449 (31-69) in 23 games…Markakis has never hit a lead-off home run. Bullpen W-L-S 2-2-2 MAY MASHERS: In the month of May, the Orioles tied for second (with Oakland) in MLB in home runs (37) Bullpen ERA 4.94 (23.2IP, 13ER) and ninth in slugging percentage (.413)…The Birds homered in 23 of 30 May games, including 11 games with at Saves/Opps 2/4 least two HR…Nelson Cruz leads the majors with 21 homers this season and set a May club record with 13 long balls, passing Jim Gentile (1962) and Eddie Murray (1987), who each hit 11. Best homestand 3-2 (4/25-5/1) Worst homestand 2-4 (5/9-14) WORTH THE WAIT: The Orioles are 5-2 in extra innings games this year…The Birds were 8-7 in extra innings Best road trip 4-2 (5/2-8) in 2013 after going 16-2 in 2012…Since the start of the 2012 season, the Birds are 29-11 in extra innings Worst road trip 3-3 (4/4-9) contests…In games that have gone 12 or more innings since the start of 2012, the Orioles are 12-4 (13-5 including the 2012 postseason). A MATTER OF TIME: J.J. Hardy has gone 71 games (277 at-bats) since his last home run (September 6, 2013)…It is the longest homerless drought of his career (previously 42 games, April 4-June 10, 2005)…He has not hit a home run in his first 48 games this season, topping his longest stretch to start the season without a homer (44 in 2005, his rookie year)…According to STATS, Hardy’s stretch of 278 consecutive AB’s (he had one AB after his homer on 9/6/13) without a homer is the second-longest by an active player with a 30+ homer season in his career, behind Jacoby Ellsbury’s 314 at-bat homerless stretch from April 7-July 4, 2013. TOMORROW’S STARTER: RH Miguel Gonzalez will make his 11th start of the season and his seventh on the road…In his six road starts, Gonzalez is 1-3 with a 5.29 ERA (32.1IP, 19ER)…In three career starts against Texas, Gonzalez is 2-1 with a 2.95 ERA (18.1IP, 6ER)…In two starts in Arlington, he is 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA (11.2IP, 5ER).