The Baltimore Orioles came home from a 5-1 road trip through New York and Boston with a 19-9 record. That was the best mark in the major leagues and had them in first place in the American League East.

One of the main reasons for their early success was the performance of their starting pitching.

Over the last few games, that pitching has been getting hammered.

Since Saturday, Tommy Hunter, Brian Matusz and Jake Arrieta have all failed to give the Orioles quality starts. After his last outing, Hunter was sent down to minor league Norfolk to get himself straightened out.

With the exception of a couple of decent starts, Matusz has been terrible for over a year. Arrieta has been dominant at times. But he has also struggled as evidenced by Tuesday's game against the Texas Rangers. In that game, Arrieta gave up nine hits and six runs. He also gave up two of Josh Hamilton's four home runs.

In all fairness, Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen have been strong all season for Baltimore manager Buck Showalter.

The Orioles have been one of baseball's pleasant surprises , so far, in 2012.

If they want to keep winning games and stay relevant through the summer, some members of the starting rotation need to get back on track.