They are coming on the home stretch: O's journey goes to Detroit for a weekend series

The Orioles will finish their penultimate away tour of the season this weekend with three games at Comerica Park in Detroit.

The Orioles have not played the Tigers all year and will now see them on two consecutive weekends and in six of their next nine games.

While the Orioles have struggled recently, starting this trip in Boston 1-2 and now 1-4 in their last five games and 2-5 in their last seven games, Detroit is doing the exact opposite.

The Tigers' four-game winning streak ended on Thursday with a 4-2 home loss to Colorado. The O's will be without their top player, Tarik Skubal, who allowed just one run in six innings in that game.

That puts Detroit at 75-72 and 3.5 games behind Minnesota in the battle for the final AL wild card spot. Detroit needs a lot of wins to make a final push, and if they get them at the expense of the Orioles, it could really hurt Baltimore's AL East title hopes.

As of August 11, Detroit's record of 18-11 is the best in the major leagues. They've averaged 4.9 runs per game and have a team OPS of .735. But what really sets them apart is their pitching.

In those 29 games, they have posted a team ERA of 2.51, which leads the MLB during that time period. They have allowed a team batting average of .208 and a team OPS of .579 during that time period. Detroit has a run differential of plus-56 during that time period.

The Tigers are 37-35 at home, 13-10 against AL East opponents (2-4 against the Yankees), and 28-22 since the All-Star break.

Of the Orioles' 15 remaining regular-season games, nine are against teams they haven't played this season. Next week, they host San Francisco for three games in their final home game. They also play three at Yankee Stadium and are 6-4 against New York this year, and three in Minnesota and are 3-0 against the Twins.

The Yankees played and won the first game of a four-game series against Boston last night. They are now 5-5 against the Red Sox this season and lead the Orioles by two games. After this series, they play three each at Seattle and Oakland and New York is 2-2 against both clubs. They then host the Orioles and are 4-6 in the season series and host Pittsburgh, a club they have not played in the 2024 season.

The Westburg Effect: This probably affects more than one player, but infielder Jordan Westburg was playing a strong season for the Orioles when he was hit by a pitch and broke his right hand. The O's are still hoping he'll be back soon, but his last game was July 31.

Up until that date, the Orioles were 65-44 and had a half-game lead, scoring 5.1 runs per game with a team OPS of .774.

Since August 1, without Westburg, the Orioles are 18-20, scoring 4.4 runs per game with a team OPS of .696.

In 101 games played, Westburg has a batting average of .269 with an OPS of .815, 18 home runs and 58 RBIs.

The O's' weak offense has scored just 15 runs in their last seven games, putting them at 2-5. They have a team batting average of .199 with an OPS of .578 during that span, and they have assigned 6 of 46 (.130) runners to scoring position during that time.

The O's are, of course, missing all of their injured players, including Ramón Urías. He has an OPS of .754 for the year, but before his ankle sprain, he had a batting average of .341 with two doubles, one triple, four home runs, 15 RBIs and an OPS of .1.139 in his last 15 games.

The Orioles could be getting some big-time talent and key players back in the final weeks, but will they have enough time to get up to speed and hit the ground running?

It will be interesting to see what impact this has on the 28-man roster and the playoff roster.