Tommy Milone tries to rebound from his first loss of the season on Friday when the Oakland Athletics continue a four-game set against the Baltimore Orioles at the O.co Coliseum.
Milone had won his first three starts, but was roughed up a bit by Tampa Bay on Sunday to the tune of six runs (4 earned) and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings to raise his ERA to 4.26.
"That's the way the game goes. It happens," said Milone, who beat the O's last season in his only other appearance against them. "As much as we pitchers would like it, we're not going to score 10 runs every game. We don't worry about what the offense is doing. We've got to go out there and do our own business."
Baltimore will counter with lefty Wei-Yin Chen, who is 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA. Chen picked up his first win of the season on Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, as he allowed a run and three hits in six innings. However, he did walk four batters.
"Obviously, I don't think that it was really good tonight," Chen said through an interpreter following that outing. "I was lucky tonight. My stuff was terrible today, not really good. I was lucky tonight to get a win."
Chen could be headed for another win on Friday, as he dominated the A's last season, beating them twice, while holding them to a single earned run in 12 2/3 innings.
Baltimore kicked off an 11-game road trip in winning fashion on Thursday, as Nate McLouth, Nick Markakis and Chris Davis drove in two runs apiece to help the Orioles to a 10-2 win.
McLouth and Markakis also scored a pair of runs and Davis had two hits, including a solo homer in the sixth inning. Adam Jones had three hits, scored twice and drove in a run, while Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy both had an RBI for the Orioles, winners in six of their last eight games.
Jason Hammel (3-1) held the A's to just two unearned runs on three hits over six-plus innings.
"It's to not have to play one-run and two-run ball games, which we have been doing for the last year and a half," Hammel said. "It was nice to have a little comfort and get our road trip started off in a nice way.
Josh Donaldson drove in both runs for Oakland, which saw starter Jarrod Parker (0-4) give up six runs on eight hits over 5 1/3 innings. The A's have now dropped six of their last seven games following a three-game sweep of the Houston Astros from April 15-17.
"We just had a stinker tonight. You have to just try to put it past you and be confident that you're going to win tomorrow," A's manager Bob Melvin said.
Oakland won five of its nine meetings with the Orioles last season and has beaten them in 16 of the last 20 matchups at home. In fact the Athletics are 13-0-1 in the last 14 season series against the Orioles, dating back to the start of the 1999 season.
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