masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgChris Tillman gave up a rare home run, but not much else tonight. The Orioles hit back-to-back homers again. Their bullpen had another good night and they returned to the win column with a 5-2 victory over Seattle.
Tillman got the win and is now 6-1 with an ERA of 2.61, and the Orioles are 8-1 in his nine starts. He went 6 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs with three walks and six strikeouts. Tillman threw 109 pitches, 65 for strikes, in improving to 7-0 with an ERA of 2.96 over nine…

Chris Tillman gave up a rare home run, but not much else tonight. The Orioles hit back-to-back homers again. Their bullpen had another good night and they returned to the win column with a 5-2 victory over Seattle.

Tillman got the win and is now 6-1 with an ERA of 2.61, and the Orioles are 8-1 in his nine starts. He went 6 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs with three walks and six strikeouts. Tillman threw 109 pitches, 65 for strikes, in improving to 7-0 with an ERA of 2.96 over nine career starts against his former organization.

Tillman-Throws-Orange-Sidebar.jpgTonight, Tillman recorded his sixth straight quality start. He is 5-0 with a 1.83 ERA in that span. He is also now 5-0 with a 2.04 ERA in seven home starts in 2016.

Brad Brach struck out two to preserve what was a 4-2 lead in the seventh. When Seattle loaded the bases off Brach with one out in the eighth, Zach Britton came on to try for the five-out save. He fanned pinch-hitter Dae-Ho Lee and got Chris Iannetta to ground out to leave the bases full. He then pitched a scoreless ninth for his 11th save in 11 chances.

The Orioles’ scoring started tonight in the second inning when they hit back-to-back home runs for the seventh time this season, already one more than in all of 2015. Mark Trumbo hit a 412-foot shot to left off Seattle starter Taijuan Walker. That was No. 12 for Trumbo. Matt Wieters followed with his third, a 366-foot shot to right, and it was 2-0. Wieters went 3-for-4 and added two doubles. He had four extra-base hits in 86 at-bats before tonight and then three in this game.

Seattle scored single runs off Tillman in the third and fourth to tie the game. Leonys Martin homered on a 3-1 pitch in the third and Nelson Cruz doubled and later scored on Iannetta’s sac fly in the fourth.

Tillman had allowed just one homer over 45 1/3 innings this year in his previous eight starts. He had gone 180 batters between homers allowed with his first coming on April 8.

The O’s moved ahead 3-2 in the fourth on a Trumbo single and a Wieters RBI double to center for a two-RBI night. Walker walked two, made an error and threw a wild pitch to hand the O’s a run in the fifth for a 4-2 lead. Hyun Soo Kim walked and scored that run. Jonathan Schoop‘s sac fly in the eighth made it 5-2 and scored Wieters, who doubled and went to third on Ryan Flaherty‘s single.

The O’s improved to 24-14 by winning for the eighth time in 10 games and for the 13th time in 19 games. They improved to 17-7 at home while Seattle (22-17) falls to 14-7 in road games.

The Orioles can take another series if they win on Thursday afternoon at 12:35 p.m. Tyler Wilson (2-1, 2.93 ERA) pitches against right-hander Nathan Karns (3-1, 3.51 ERA) in the homestand finale.