Indians-Orioles Preview

BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Orioles will try to continue their string of good starts while the Cleveland Indians are going to search for some offense again in Sunday's series finale at Camden Yards.

The Orioles won the first two games of this series, getting strong efforts from Kevin Gausman (seven shutout innings in Saturday's 5-2 victory) and Dylan Bundy (five innings with one unearned run in Friday's 5-1 win).

That followed Chris Tillman's seven innings of one-run baseball in Thursday's 4-1 victory over the Yankees. Baltimore starters now have allowed two runs in 19 innings over that three-game stretch -- each of which the Orioles have won.

"It's a good offense 1/8with Cleveland 3/8, and I think me and Bundy both pitched well the last few days and really everybody has pitched well," Gausman said. "I think that more than anything is big."

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said every day is different, and the team needs to keep up that consistency in the starting rotation.

"There's going to be another challenge around every corner and you can't dwell on successes and failures here," he said. "We'll need another good pitching effort in order to compete with them."

In the series finale, Vance Worley (2-1, 3.16) will make a second straight start for the Orioles, going against Corey Kluber (9-8, 3.42).

Worley gave up three runs on three hits in 4 1/3 innings of Tuesday's 7-1 loss versus the Yankees as the Orioles have been using him and Bundy in the back end of their rotation.

The Orioles were struggling there with Ubaldo Jimenez, Tyler Wilson and Mike Wright pitching in those spots for much of this season. Bundy earned his first victory as a major league starter in Friday's win.

The question is how long the rotation looks like this -- especially in the back end -- as Baltimore's made it clear that the team is searching to make a deal before the trade deadline.

Kluber earned the victory for the American League in the All-Star Game on July 12 and threw seven scoreless innings in his last start on July 18 versus the Royals, where he did not get a decision.

The Indians have one of the best starting rotations in baseball but their starters -- Trevor Bauer and Josh Tomlin -- lost the first two games of this series as Baltimore took early leads in both.

Cleveland also has struggled on offense as the Orioles' starters shut them down. Plus, Baltimore took a 3-0 lead in the first inning both times, with Mark Trumbo hitting homers both times, a two-run shot in Saturday's game.

"The first inning kind of jumped up and grabbed us again," Cleveland manager Terry Francona said Saturday. "You know, sometimes you kind of tip our hat to the other team."

Jason Kipnis agreed with Francona and added that the offense just couldn't do enough against Baltimore's pitching. The Indians have featured one of baseball's hottest offenses in recent weeks but not in this series.

And that's something they want to change.

"The offense just didn't do our thing," Kipnis said on Saturday night.