BALTIMORE _ Right-hander Chris Tillman pitched 5 1/3 innings on Monday night and again fell victim to some faulty command, walking four and allowing two home runs in the Orioles 7-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners before 15,106 at Camden Yards.
First baseman Chris Davis finally decided a back-and-forth game with a tie-breaking RBI double in the seventh inning as the Orioles won for the fifth straight time and moved above .500 (66-65) for the first time since June 11.
Tillman was effective and efficient through three innings, giving up just two hits and holding down his pitch count while the O's built a 3-1 lead, but he walked a pair of hitters in the fourth before left fielder Ben Gamel hit a two-out, three-run homer to temporarily give the Mariners the lead.
The Orioles answered immediately with two runs in the bottom of the fourth and added a run in the fifth on a home run by Adam Jones, but Gamel was having the night of his life. He came up with the bases loaded in the sixth and tied the game with a two-run single to center that gave him a career single-game high with five RBIs.
Reliever Mychal Givens allowed that hit, but the two runners who scored were charged to Tillman, who allowed six runs on just three hits. Donnie Hart and Darren O'Day pitched scoreless innings before Zach Britton finished up.
The Orioles have averaged 7.3 runs per game over their past seven games and rolled out 16 on Monday night. Manny Machado, Trey Mancini and Welington Castillo each had three hits and everyone in the starting lineup had at least one.
When Jones went deep in the fifth inning, this became his seventh straight season with 25 home runs or more. He owns the third longest such streak among active players and the longest that is on-going. He is back on pace to hit more than 30 homers for the third time in his career.
Reserve outfielder Craig Gentry lined a bases-loaded single to left field in the fourth inning to tie the score after Tillman gave up a three-run homer in the top of the inning.
The hit raised his batting average with runners in scoring position to .333 (6-for-18) and kept him on a roll since returning from Triple-A Norfolk. He came back July 30 and is batting .359 (14-for-39) since then.
You know that baseball axiom about the folly of getting thrown out at third base with zero or two outs? Well, the same goes for second base if there is somebody at third.
Welington Castillo drove in two runs with a single in the second inning, so he probably gets a pass for this, but he got himself thrown out at second to end the inning when he tagged up behind Chris Davis on a flyout by Gentry with the sizzling Tim Beckham coming to the plate.
Jonathan Schoop also got thrown out on the bases trying to stretch a single after driving home Manny Machado in the third inning, but his decision could be construed as an attempt to force a cutoff on the throw toward the plate.
