masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgSo much for hitting back-to-back home runs and outmuscling the opposition.
The Orioles took a shorter route to victory tonight, collecting 10 singles among their 12 hits and rallying past the Tigers 7-5 at Camden Yards.
They were down 5-0 heading to the bottom of the sixth, where they scored twice to set up the decisive seventh.
Nine batters, five singles, a triple and five runs. The Tigers’ bullpen imploded again.
The Orioles hit 12 home runs in their last three games, but they used a…

So much for hitting back-to-back home runs and outmuscling the opposition.

The Orioles took a shorter route to victory tonight, collecting 10 singles among their 12 hits and rallying past the Tigers 7-5 at Camden Yards.

They were down 5-0 heading to the bottom of the sixth, where they scored twice to set up the decisive seventh.

Nine batters, five singles, a triple and five runs. The Tigers’ bullpen imploded again.

The Orioles hit 12 home runs in their last three games, but they used a different approach to extend their winning streak to five games and move nine above .500.

“We didn’t hit one tonight, did we?” said manager Buck Showalter. “Just grinding through it.”

Once again, Showalter pointed to key moments in the game that otherwise might have gone overlooked, including Joey Rickard hitting the cutoff man, Ryan Flaherty, who fired to second base to get Miguel Cabrera in the sixth.

“Little things you take out of it,” Showalter said. “Things we talk about all the time.”

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Vance Worley let two inherited runners score in the sixth, but he still got credit for the win with two scoreless innings. Darren O’Day stranded a runner in the eighth – he’s been scored upon in one of his 15 outings – and Zach Britton registered his ninth save by retiring the side in order.

Ubaldo Jimenez was charged with three runs and nine hits in five-plus innings and gladly took a no-decision.

“That’s a big part of the order there for Darren to go through,” Showalter said.

“Ubaldo didn’t let it get away from him. Kept us in touch. I know he’s disappointed in his outing. Just real proud by how everybody grinded and gave us a shot at it and got some big hits. Sometimes, the best moves you make are the moves you don’t make, right?”

Showalter decided not to make a move to start the sixth, letting Jimenez return with his pitch count at 100. The first two batters reached and later scored after Worley replaced him.

Jimenez let 14 of 28 batters reach base.

“I didn’t think his breaking ball was as crisp,” Showalter said. “He had really good late finish on the split last time out. He had a little bit more of a tumbler tonight. Against those guys, it doesn’t work too well.

“I almost took him out after the fifth. He had a good fifth inning and wanted to go back out there. Starting pitchers have a lot of pride like he does. They really want to get into that sixth or seventh inning. I know he wanted to try to get through the sixth inning for us.”

Chris Davis had an RBI double in the sixth and Jonathan Schoop broke a 5-5 tie with a two-out, two-run triple in the seventh – the first three-bagger of his major league career.

One of the biggest singles was delivered by Pedro Alvarez, whose RBI tied the game before Schoop batted.

Who needs home runs?

“There are some first to thirds going on there,” Showalter said. “Like I said before, it’s not like they go in the cage or go out and take batting practice working on hitting home runs. It’s the byproduct of good approaches. But I said many times, a guy hits 30 home runs in 600, 700 plate appearances and he’s considered to have great power. But look at how many plate appearances that other things happen.

“We had some productive outs. The guys kid about POFO – productive outs for Orioles – and you’ve got to always try to keep some pressure on them. At least take a run at them and see if you can get the tying run up there and see what happens.”

Alvarez was 1-for-11 versus left-handers before his RBI single against Tigers southpaw Justin Wilson. He also had a walk-off sacrifice fly against former Orioles lefty Andrew Miller.

“He sticks his nose in there. He stays in there,” Showalter said.

“He’s had some good at-bats this year off left-handers. It depends on which ones they are, just like any hitter.”

Is this team more equipped to pass the baton than others that Showalter has managed in Baltimore?

“I’d have to think about it,” he replied. “We’ve had some good teams here, OK? There were some periods last year when that happened, periods in ’14. I’m not going to sit here and anoint anything in the middle of May about what this is going to be. I think we’ve got a lot of roads to cross before we say that.”