(My Sportsbook) - The Baltimore Orioles haven't been winning much lately, but they've certainly been able to handle the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at home in recent years. The two American League East foes renew acquaintances with tonight's opener of a three-game series from Camden Yards.

The Orioles have won nine straight games from the Devil Rays in Baltimore, including all six matchups between the teams at Camden Yards this season. Since the start of the 2005 campaign, Tampa Bay is just 4-20 as the visitor in this series.

The Devil Rays also have the worst road record in the majors this year, a pitiful 20-42 overall mark.

Baltimore has been struggling at home as of late, however. The club has lost six consecutive times after opening this 10-game residency with a 6-2 victory over Texas on August 21. The last four defeats came at the hands of the Minnesota Twins, who completed the sweep with an 11-3 rout on Sunday.

Erik Bedard set the Orioles' single-season strikeout record with his 219th K in the first inning. That was the highlight of the day for the Baltimore ace, who was tagged for six runs on six hits and walked five batters over six innings.

Freddie Bynum had three hits, including a double for the Orioles, who were outscored by a 31-10 margin for the series.

Baltimore has another reason to be optimistic this evening, as scheduled starting pitcher Daniel Cabrera has dominated the Devil Rays over the course of his career.

Cabrera is 6-0 with a 2.90 earned run average in 10 lifetime starts against Tampa Bay and has won all three of his matchups with Tampa Bay this season. The right-hander has yielded seven runs and just 13 hits over 20 innings of work in those three starts.

The hard-throwing Dominican has alternated wins and losses over his last six starts. Cabrera has amassed a stellar 0.44 ERA in the three victories and a 9.37 ERA in the three defeats.

His most recent start was one of the forgettable ones, as the 26-year-old permitted six runs on nine hits in five innings during Baltimore's 30-3 shellacking by Texas last Wednesday.

Tampa Bay had won three in a row before falling to Chicago in a makeup game on Monday. The White Sox scored five times in the seventh inning, capped by a go- ahead two-run homer by Josh Fields, to rally for a 5-4 win at U.S. Cellular Field.

Edwin Jackson shut out the White Sox over the first six innings, but the Rays starter surrendered consecutive home runs to A.J. Pierzynski, Jermaine Dye and Juan Uribe to start the seventh. The right-hander was then pulled after allowing a double to Danny Richar, who wound up scoring on Fields' blast off Dan Wheeler (0-2).

Delmon Young had a pair of hits, including a two-run homer, for Tampa Bay, while B.J. Upton finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.

The Devil Rays will send Jason Hammel to the mound tonight as the young righty searches for an elusive first win as a starter this season. Hammel's lone victory in 2007 came in a relief role, when he tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings to defeat Arizona on June 18.

The 24-year-old moved into the Tampa rotation in late July and has not fared well, having posted an 0-4 record with an 8.26 ERA in seven games. In his most recent start, Hammel was rocked for six runs and issued five walks in just three innings of Thursday's loss to Oakland.

Hammel made three starts against the Orioles as a rookie last season and lost each one of those games, while allowing a total of 14 runs and 23 hits over 13 1/3 innings.

Baltimore has won 10 of the 12 overall meetings with the Devil Rays so far in 2007.