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AL East foes meet up at Camden Yards

Jun 10, 2011 - 2:50 PM (Sports Network) - May was an excellent month for Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson. June hasn't been bad either so far.

The right-hander takes aim at a third straight winning start tonight in the opener of a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

Hellickson, May's American League pitcher and rookie of the month honoree, is 6-1 over his last seven starts with a 1.74 earned run average and has yielded just a single run over his past 14 1/3 innings. That run came in Saturday's victory in Seattle after he worked around three hits and a walk over 7 1/3 frames of a 3-2 win.

"I threw a lot of fastballs early, haven't done that lately," said Hellickson, who is 7-3 with a 2.64 earned run average in 11 starts this season. "It's easy to go out there to throw strikes after we're up 3-0 after the second inning."

The 24-year-old's May included consecutive winning starts over the Orioles on May 7 and 13. He threw a four-hit shutout at home in the latter outing, the first of his career, and is 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA in four career meetings (three starts) with Baltimore.

Hellickson will try to guide the Rays to a fourth consecutive victory tonight as the club is coming off a three-game sweep of the Angels. Tampa Bay took Wednesday's finale in thrilling fashion after John Jaso scored on Reid Brignac's squeeze bunt in the 10th inning for a 4-3 triumph.

"I was fortunate enough to get the bunt down. It was a pitch 97 [mph] at my head," said Brignac, who also hit his first homer of the season in the game.

The win improved Tampa Bay to 4-3 on a four-city, 11-game road trip and has the club three games back of first place in the AL East.

The Orioles are also coming off a three-game sweep after dispatching the Athletics, 3-2, at home on Wednesday. All three of Baltimore's runs came in the fifth inning, with Mark Reynolds swatting a two-run homer and J.J. Hardy adding an RBI single in the O's fifth victory in seven games.

"We're just trying to win ball games. It doesn't matter who we're playing," Reynolds said.

Zach Britton allowed one run over 6 1/3 innings, while Kevin Gregg threw a perfect ninth for his 12th save of the season.

Jake Arrieta will start tonight for Baltimore and is 7-3 with a 4.93 ERA on 13 starts this season.

After lasting just 2 1/3 innings in a loss at Seattle on May 30, the right- hander bounced back with a victory over the Blue Jays on Saturday. He gave up three runs on five hits and four walks over six innings.

Arrieta, 25, defeated the Rays on May 15 with six innings of two-run ball and is 1-1 with a .19 ERA in three career starts against them.

Baltimore is expected to be without Derrek Lee for this series after the first baseman traveled to California to attend his grandfather's funeral.

Though the O's have taken five of six so far in Tampa Bay this season, they were swept at home in three games by the Rays on May 6-8.