BALTIMORE _ Just as unfamiliar as the Orioles' quiet bats this week against the Toronto Blue Jays in their typically prolific playground at Camden Yards was the steady strength of their starting pitchers.
With six innings of three-run ball for his first quality start of the season, right-hander Kevin Gausman made it three in a row for the Orioles starters in Wednesday night's 5-3 win after Dylan Bundy and Andrew Cashner covered for a beaten-up bullpen with seven innings apiece Monday and Tuesday.
Such spells were rare last season, with inconsistency from pretty much everyone in the rotation making pitching upgrades this year paramount to the team's success.
No one could account for the offense to struggle the way it has, but with Gausman's effort Wednesday, the Orioles head off on another seven-game road trip with their rotation looking upward.
It looked as if Gausman might not hold up his part of the deal, though. The Blue Jays scored on him in the first inning _ he hasn't posted a clean first inning in three starts so far _ though he came close to getting out of it unscathed. He allowed a leadoff single to left fielder Curtis Granderson, but a fielder's choice and a popup gave him two quick outs. Gausman then walked Steve Pearce and allowed a single to Kevin Pillar to put him down 1-0.
From that point until the fifth inning, the Blue Jays only had one hit _ a two-out double by third baseman Yangervis Solarte. Staked to a 3-1 lead after the Orioles bats finally broke through against Marco Estrada after again going hitless in the first three innings, backup catcher Luke Maile singled off Gausman to open the fifth. He went to second on a walk by Justin Smoak and scored on another hit by Solarte.
Shortstop Aledmys Diaz homered with two outs in the sixth inning to cut the Orioles' deficit to 4-3 before Gausman recorded his seventh and final strikeout against No. 9 hitter Gift Ngoepe to close the book.
He ended up charged with three earned runs on six hits with three walks and seven strikeouts, bringing his ERA from 8.00 to 6.60 on the season. Combined with seven innings of two-run ball from Bundy in a loss Monday and Cashner's seven shutout innings Tuesday, the Orioles' rotation has allowed five runs in 20 innings this series with 23 strikeouts while yielding 14 hits and eight walks.
While those three seem to be on track, the pending arrival of free agent Alex Cobb _ who is scheduled to pitch Saturday in Boston after a successful bullpen session Wednesday at Double-A Bowie _ erases one questionable spot in the rotation. Chris Tillman gets another chance to prove himself when the Orioles open a four-game set with the high-flying Red Sox on Friday.
