masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgMiguel Gonzalez pitched the Orioles to a win tonight and he improved to 11-8 with an ERA of 3.78, allowing just two hits and one unearned run over seven innings against Toronto.

“Everything was working,” Gonzalez said. “The splitty was great. I threw enough offspeed for strikes for them to swing at. Fell behind a couple of hitters but we made some great plays all around and finished great with J.J. (Jim Johnson) and (Tommy) Hunter.

“I’m happy I finished well. I’m healthy and that’s the…Miguel Gonzalez pitched the Orioles to a win tonight and he improved to 11-8 with an ERA of 3.78, allowing just two hits and one unearned run over seven innings against Toronto.

“Everything was working,” Gonzalez said. “The splitty was great. I threw enough offspeed for strikes for them to swing at. Fell behind a couple of hitters but we made some great plays all around and finished great with J.J. (Jim Johnson) and (Tommy) Hunter.

“I’m happy I finished well. I’m healthy and that’s the most important thing. I had some ups and downs this year but that is just part of baseball.”

Gonzalez is 3-1 with a 2.30 ERA in five September starts and is 7-2 with a 3.53 ERA in 13 home starts.

He was asked if this was his best Camden Yards start?

“I don’t know,” he said. “Had a couple of good games. Against Anaheim I went eight innings and just gave up one run. We did a good job tonight of keeping guys off bases.”

Nick Markakis came up with an RBI double in the O’s two-run third off Mark Buehrle that gave the O’s a 2-1 lead.

“Just looking for a ball over the plate,” Markakis said. “Kind of have an idea of what he is trying to do up there. Been playing against him for a little while now. You have to try and make him get the ball up in the zone and then don’t miss it.”

Tommy Hunter pitched a wild eighth inning that saw him allow hits to three of the first four batters he faced and Adam Jones made a nice running catch for the one out he got in that stretch.

He said at that point he made an adjustment.

“Yeah, I had to. Three hits, four hits, it was a lot. Unfortunately I put myself in that situation with a stressful inning.”

But then he turned it around to fan back-to-back batters and keep the O’s in the 3-2 lead.

“We had to have them,” Hunter said. “Wiety (Matt Wieters) came out, hit me in the chest and said, ‘You need to strike this guy out.’ Sometimes you do, I guess.”

The O’s won the season series 10-9 over Toronto going 6-3 in Baltimore and 4-6 in Toronto.

With tonight’s decision, now 17 of the last 19 O’s games have been decided by two runs or less and the Orioles are 7-10 in those games.