masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgNEW YORK – The Orioles didn’t sustain any new injuries today and the flu bug didn’t find another victim. Not that they’re aware of as they waited to head home following a much-needed 4-1 win over the Yankees.
Outfielder Joey Rickard will undergo an X-ray on his right thumb after bending it back last night while running into the right field fence in the first inning.
“Rickard ran into the wall last night and really didn’t show the extent of it until today,” said manager Buck Showalter….

NEW YORK – The Orioles didn’t sustain any new injuries today and the flu bug didn’t find another victim. Not that they’re aware of as they waited to head home following a much-needed 4-1 win over the Yankees.

Outfielder Joey Rickard will undergo an X-ray on his right thumb after bending it back last night while running into the right field fence in the first inning.

“Rickard ran into the wall last night and really didn’t show the extent of it until today,” said manager Buck Showalter. “Richie wasn’t expecting anything. He came in today and he couldn’t close his hand. Hopefully, that will get better. He just bent it back a little bit.”

May as well go down the rest of the injury roll call.

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“(Matt) Wieters is close. I’m hoping it’s kind of day-to-day,” Showalter said. “Adam (Jones), I’m hoping it’s not very long. I’m hoping he can play tomorrow, but he had some back spasms. It was toward the end of the game last night. He actually felt it a little bit early. We thought it might loosen up. He feels better today by the end of the day.

“Chris (Davis) worked his way through. He knew we were short. We only had 10 players. Julio (Borbon) gave us a little shot in the arm. He scored from first on that ball (in the seventh). That’s an element we could really use.”

The Orioles will try to avoid making another roster move before Friday night’s game against the Indians at Camden Yards.

“We’re so close with a lot of them,” he said. “I’m hoping they’re a day-or-two type things. I don’t want to lose a guy for 13 days, so we’ll probably just wait on it.

“We’re going to get, an X-ray they’re going to do on Joey to make sure there’s nothing else there, and we have a feel for what’s wrong with Matt, so hopefully he’ll get a little stronger each day. And hopefully Adam’s not too long.

“Manny (Machado) feels a lot better today. He’s not 100 percent. Richie thought he’d be able to play, but he’s not all the way back from this.”

Showalter made it through the game, but he didn’t spend all nine innings leaning on the railing. He kept disappearing into the dugout.

“I was real smart with Chris Tillman pitching. I know I’m living right,” he quipped. “We were good hands. A lot tougher things going on in this world than me. I can tell you that.”

Tillman was a breath of fresh air amidst all the germs. He’s allowed one run over seven innings in each of his last four starts and he’s improved to 14-2 with a 3.18 ERA. He’s tied with the White Sox’s Chris Sale for most wins in the majors.

No Orioles starter had allowed one run or fewer in four straight starts since Jim Palmer strung together six in a row in 1978.

The Orioles are 18-3 when Tillman takes the mound, the most wins in any major league pitchers starts this season, according to ESPN.

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Tillman is the first Orioles pitcher to win 14 games through 21 starts in a season since Sidney Ponson in 2003.

“He’s been doing it for a while, pretty much all season,” said shortstop J.J. Hardy, whose 2-run single in the first inning gave the Orioles a quick lead. “It was big for him to throw like he did. We needed it.

“That’s what ace’s do. He’s our ace and that’s what they do. Every time they take the mound you’ve got a good chance to win.”

“He did great,” said catcher Caleb Joseph. “That was exciting to be a part of. Made a lot of pitches to a lot of quadrants. Really pitched. The real definition of pitching. He’s been kind of our stopper the whole season and he proved that again today.”

The definition of stopper?

“A guy that can come in and shut the door down,” Joseph said. “A guy who can come in after a few losses and just right the ship. It’s not something that we want to pin on him, but he’s proven that he’s done it a few times this year.”

With Wieters out, Joseph caught Tillman for the first time this season and noted the low degree of difficulty.

“When you feel like you have weapons, that’s definitely a positive, and I was thinking about that,” Joseph said. “After the fourth inning, I was thinking, ‘Man, I feel like I have a lot of weapons.’ Not to say that other pitchers don’t. I thought Yovani (Gallardo) had a lot of weapons last night, as well. But Chris has really had a bounce back year from last year.

“I’ve been privileged to watch a lot of the games and I’ve caught him in the past and it’s not like he’s throwing anything different. Just the action. That’s what you want to concentrate on in the bullpen. Making sure the action is what you think you see from the side. Then it was just a matter of executing the game plan that we came up with at the beginning of the game. He made it easy. I didn’t have to move very much. Anytime the pitcher hits the glove it’s fairly easy back there.

“I know he’s disappointed with last year, but this year he’s been spectacular, he’s been solid, and his pitches keep getting better and better. And that’s a good thing for the Orioles.”

Showalter was just as impressed, of course.

“That’s as good of a four-pitch mix as he’s had,” Showalter said. “He’s had some good ones, too. You can tell he was really trying to give us what we needed today.

“It’s good to get him some runs early to give him some margin for error. That’s impressive, especially when you keep in mind he’s been facing these guys for a long time and they know everything he’s going to try to do, and he can still do it.”

If it looks like a stopper and throws like a stopper, it must be a stopper.

“That today is a good example of that,” Showalter said. “We get them mixed up sometimes, closers and stoppers. It’s the time of the year when you get quality pitching. They’re pitching well and we’re not swinging the bat particularly well and you come out of it with a ‘W’ and we won one in a row and we’re going home.”

A four-game losing streak ended because Tillman held the Yankees to one run, Hardy gave the Orioles (54-40) an early lead, Jonathan Schoop provided two huge tack-on runs in the seventh, runners weren’t left in scoring position all day, Brad Brach threw a scoreless eighth and Zach Britton recorded his 30th save.

Asked about the offensive slump, Hardy said, “It was four games. I don’t know all the stats and everything, but I know we lost four in a row. We just keep grinding, keep grinding. It happens. You go through these stretches throughout the season and you’ve just got to stay positive and things will turn around.”

Hardy’s single in the fourth inning made him 19-for-55 (.345) this month with four doubles, two home runs and 11 RBIs.

Comfortable at the plate? Seeing the ball? Pick your favorite cliché.

“Yeah, you can name them all,” Hardy said. “Just trying to hit the ball hard and trying to find holes and that’s what’s happening.”

Davis walked against CC Sabathia to load the bases with two outs in the first and Hardy grounded a single off shortstop Didi Gregorius’ glove, a big hit from a team that had scored six runs in his last five games. A quick lead is exactly what it needed and craved.

“First inning, obviously, if we can get a couple runs, it’s good,” Hardy said. “I think we scored four runs today, so it’s not like we scored a bunch of runs after that. It was just nice to get out in front.”

Schoop doubled off Sabathia with two outs in the seventh to extend the lead to 4-1.

“That was big,” Hardy said. “That game just kind of had a feeling of just a one-run game not being good for us, so that was a big hit for Schoopie and the team.”

Tillman didn’t need more than the two runs Hardy provided.

“After the first inning I feel like we got in sync,” Tillman said. “Was able to command all four to both sides. When you have that, it’s fun. You get to go out and make pitches and Caleb did an outstanding job of getting back on track there.”

Has anything clicked over these last four starts?

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“Nothing off the top of my head,” Tillman replied. “I think I’ve been able to throw my offspeed pitches for strikes. I struggled a bit there with my offspeed pitches and when you only have your fastball to go to, these hitters are too good. I’ve been able to mix pitches when I want to.”

Looks like a stopper.

“I don’t know,” Tillman said. “I just know we needed to go out there and get a win today. Go home with a win. Didn’t want to lose four in a row (in New York). I wanted to go out there and get the team a win and we were able to do that.”

Tillman’s been able to avoid the flu, perhaps a bigger accomplishment than today’s win.

“A lot of precautions,” he said. “I’ve been watching my hands like 10 times a day. This deal, it isn’t a good deal. It’s bad. I’ve seen it and it doesn’t look that fun. It’s putting some people on their butts, so I’m trying to stay away from it as much as I can.”

Britton’s 30 consecutive save conversions to start a season are tied with Francisco Rodriguez (2015) for ninth-most in baseball history, according to STATS. The Tigers’ Willie Hernandez is next with 32 in 1984.