Following Saturday's 3-2 loss, their third straight defeat to the Minnesota Twins, the Baltimore Orioles are now six games back in the American League East and one game out of the second AL wild-card spot, currently held by the Texas Rangers. Really -- the Rangers.
Heading into Sunday's series finale at Camden Yards (Kevin Gausman vs. Mike Pelfrey), here are some Orioles ordinals that may or may not help you digest the aforementioned information:
1: Number of times in franchise history the Orioles have been swept in a season series by the Twins (2007). Entering Sunday's game -- the last 2015 matchup between the two teams -- the Twins had won all six meetings this season.
2: Uniform number worn by Jonathan Schoop in 2004, when his Curacao team won the Little League World Series. In the 5-2 championship game victory over Thousand Oaks (Calif.), Schoop went 2-for-3 and got the final two outs to earn the save.
3: Number of consecutive seasons, prior to 2015, that the Orioles were 66-56 after 122 games. At 62-60 this season, they're four games behind that pace.
4: Number of combined base hits Saturday night by Henry Urrutia and Steve Clevenger. The rest of the Orioles lineup was 3-for-24.
5: Number of hits by regular shortstop J.J. Hardy and backup shortstop Ryan Flaherty -- who's starting Sunday -- in their last 84 at-bats combined.
6: Number of consecutive games in which Clevenger, who's hitting fifth in the Orioles' batting order Sunday, has at least one hit. He's hitting .440 during the streak (11-for-25).
7: Number of innings pitched by Brian Matusz over his last eight appearances, all of which have been scoreless.
8: Number of consecutive games the Orioles have lost when Matt Wieters is the starting catcher. Caleb Joseph gets the nod Sunday.
9: Number of earned runs allowed by Gausman in the first inning of his nine starts this season, the most of any inning.
10: Number of RBIs for Gerardo Parra since the Orioles acquired him July 31. All but one of those have come in his last eight games.
