Cleveland @ Baltimore preview
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Last Meeting ( May 14, 2010 ) Cleveland 1, Baltimore 8
Baseball's worst team through April, the Baltimore Orioles have been pretty hot of late.
They will look for their first four-game win streak since 2009 when they host the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night.
Baltimore (12-24) has become a better offensive team of late. Case in point, the Orioles belted out 14 hits en route to an 8-1 win over the Indians on Friday.
Luke Scott has keyed the winning streak with seven hits and seven RBIs and Corey Patterson, who was called up from the minors, is batting .462 in the leadoff position. Patterson also had a sensational catch in center field on Friday night.
The Orioles are hopeful that Brian Matusz (2-3, 4.91 ERA) can get back to his winning ways. Matusz has struggled recently, including his last start against the Minnesota Twins when he gave up six runs in three innings.
Matusz, however, has had some success against Cleveland. His lone outing against the Indians was an eight-inning gem, allowing just one run and four hits in a win last August.
The Indians (13-20) continue to be one of baseball's worst offensive teams. They do not have a regular player with a batting average over .300 and they are batting .245 as a team with just 18 homers (tied for 29th) and 118 RBIs (28th).
Cleveland manager Manny Acta will hand the ball to Mitch Talbot (4-2, 3.43 ERA), who has battled through his last two starts.
Talbot surrendered five runs on eight hits against the Toronto Blue Jays, then gave up four runs, six hits and four walks in a five-inning stint against the Detroit Tigers. Talbot is going to have to go deeper into games for the Indians to have a better chance of winning.
If there is one encouraging sign for the Indians, it is the recent hitting of designated hitter Travis Hafner. He has shown some life in his bat after missing most of last season due to injury.
Hafner, who had a dismal start to the season, has improved his batting average to .250 after collecting 11 hits in his last seven games. Hafner is also a .346 lifetime hitter against the Orioles.
Ty Wigginton continues to be one of the biggest surprises of the season for Baltimore.
Wigginton did not have a starting position coming out of spring training, but he’s been on fire, forcing manager Dave Tremblay to play Wigginton on a regular basis. Wigginton had three more hits Friday and he’s batting .304 with 10 homers (third in the American League) and 22 RBIs.
Miguel Tejada also has shown some life of late. Tejada had three RBIs in Friday’s win and has five RBIs in the last three games.