BALTIMORE _ The Orioles' recent return to playoff relevance had stalled the previous two nights against the Detroit Tigers, but on Saturday night, they orchestrated a comeback win to remember.
After falling behind to the Tigers in the first inning for the third straight night, left-hander Wade Miley limited the damage through five innings, the bullpen held Detroit scoreless and the Orioles scored five unanswered runs on the strength of three homers for a 5-2 win.
Newest Oriole Tim Beckham, in just his fifth game with the team since being acquired at the nonwaiver trade deadline, hit the 10,000th homer in franchise history in the top of the ninth off Tigers reliever Edward Mujica.
Beckham is now 13 for 20 with multiple hits in all five games with the Orioles. He was coaxed out of the dugout for a curtain call from the Camden Yards crowd of 33,911 after his home run, his 15th of the season and third with the Orioles, emerging to the front of the dugout and raising his hands to acknowledge the fans. He has homered in three straight games for the first time in his major league career.
Catcher Welington Castillo _ whose playing time has dropped as manager Buck Showalter has begun to play Caleb Joseph evenly _ hit a solo homer in the seventh off Detroit reliever Joe Jimenez that gave the Orioles a 3-2 lead. Over his past nine games, Castillo is hitting .412.
Adam Jones also hit a solo homer, and Jonathan Schoop had his 80th RBI of the season with a double in the third. Joey Rickard doubled home Castillo in the eighth three batters after Beckham's homer for an insurance run.
With the win, the Orioles improved to 54-56 and have won six of their past eight games .
They managed just four hits and two runs over five innings off Tigers starter Drew VerHagen, who was making his second career start filling in for injured reigning American League Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer.
Three Orioles relievers combined for four scoreless innings, including outings of more than an inning from Brad Brach (1 2/3 innings) and closer Zach Britton (11/3 innings).
Leading 3-2, Britton entered the game for Brach with two outs in the eighth after Miguel Cabrera landed on second with a single and fielding error by left fielder Trey Mancini. Britton then fielded a comebacker off the bat of Mikie Mahtook to strand the tying run on second base.
Britton retired the Tigers in order in the ninth for his ninth save of the season and his first of more than an inning since Sept. 13.
Despite the way Miley's night began Saturday, the Orioles found themselves in another battle heading into the late innings.
Just three batters into the game, Miley already trailed by two runs, allowing a two-run homer to sizzling slugger Justin Upton as part of a 30-pitch first inning. But Miley settled in after that, holding the Tigers without a run after the first. He pitched five innings, ending his night having retired seven straight.
The Orioles haven't had many answers for Upton, who has homered in each of the first three games of this four-game series. He hit a game-winning grand slam off Mychal Givens in Detroit's 5-2 win Friday and homered in the first inning off right-hander Chris Tillman of Friday's 7-5 Orioles loss.
But after allowing Upton's homer Saturday _ the Tigers' fourth first-inning home run this series _ Miley held the Tiger scoreless for the next four innings.
Miley threw just eight first-pitch strikes to the 21 batters he faced, but allowed just three baserunners over his last four innings.
Miley escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the third by getting Victor Martinez to bounce into a force out.
Burned on the Upton homer by an 0-2 slider that the outfielder reached down to get, Miley went to his off-speed pitches often, particularly his curveball and slider. He threw eight first-pitch curveballs.
He through 53 fastballs, and 26 each of his curveball and slider, eliciting three swings and misses on each pitch and a combined seven called strikes.
Jones tied the game in the fifth inning with a solo homer off starter Drew VerHagen, his 20th of the season.
With one out in the inning, Jones lifted a 1-0 curveball from VerHagen an estimated 391 feet into the left-field seats.
The blast gave Jones 20 or more homers for the seventh straight season, marking the third-longest streak of 20-homer seasons in club history. That trails only Cal Ripken Jr. (10 straight seasons) and Eddie Murray (nine).
