Orioles win 4-3 behind strong performances from Miguel Gonzalez, Adam Jones

The Orioles got back to .500 on the season tonight behind a strong start from Miguel Gonzalez and another great night at the plate by Adam Jones. MiGo treated us two a ten-strikeout night and Dr. Jones hit his fourth home run of the season as part of a two-RBI night and the bullpen survived some late inning hijinks to hold on for the W.

After a tough first start in which he gave up just one run but walked five in less than six innings, Miguel Gonzalez came back strong tonight against the Yankees. He looked shaky through the first two innings but got much stronger after that. In the first inning he gave up a long fly ball to Chase Headley that could have been a double if not for a nice play from Jones in center field, then Carlos Beltran doubled before MiGo got out of the inning. In the second inning he got the first two outs, but then a double by Chris Young and a walk to Stephen Drew put runners on for Didi Gregorius, who struck out.

While MiGo was working out of jams, Jones was giving his team the lead. CC Sabathia got Everth Cabrera and Manny Machado for the first two outs in the first inning, but Adam hit another bomb to deep left field. He has been on fire since the Orioles began their homestand, going 11-for-17 with four home runs and a double. If you're not familiar with stats, that's pretty good. Adam also got the Orioles their second run of the game in the third inning with a long fly ball that brought in Cabrera to score. Cabrera had walked and gone to third on a single by Machado.

The O's added on another solo run in the fourth inning. Delmon Young singled and moved up on a wild pitch. It looked like he might be stranded after both Chris Davis and Jonathan Schoop struck out, but Caleb Joseph came through with the two-out single to knock in Young and make the score 3-0.

The way MiGo settled in after the second inning, it looked for awhile like those three runs would be more than enough. The Yankees went nine up, nine down in the third through fifth innings, with four strikeouts. But in the sixth inning Miguel slipped just a bit and allowed the Yankees to get on the board. Jacoby Ellsbury led off the inning with a single, and after MiGo got two outs Mark Teixeira doubled in Ellsbury. But he came back to get a ground out to end the inning.

Kevin Gausman had been warming up during the sixth inning, but MiGo came back out for the seventh and it proved to be a good decision. His seventh inning was his most impressive as he struck out the side, all swinging. It was a great ending to a great game for him. Miguel's final pitching line was 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 K. Sweet.

Caleb Joseph led off the bottom of the seventh with a triple to deep center field. Yes, a triple. Caleb Joseph. That put him in position to score on a fly ball to center field (that wasn't even that deep). It felt like a tack on run at the time, but it was a run that the Orioles ended up needing.

If you look at Gausman's pitching line for the night, you'd probably come away really unimpressed. But the box score doesn't tell the whole story, and that was certainly true for Goose tonight. He gave up two runs, but the first two baserunners he allowed were on weakly hit balls hit to the exact wrong spot to be fielded. The first run scored on a ground ball, and the second scored when left fielder Alejandro De Aza botched a fly ball in left field. I had just been wondering why Lough wasn't in the game (Delmon Young was in right field, for crying out loud), and suddenly the Orioles were up by just one with the tying run on second base.

Good news, though! Zach Britton was awesome tonight. Buck Showalter called on him to get the final out of the eighth inning, and he used his excellent sinker to its full potential. He got a ground out into the shift from Brian McCann to end the inning, and then go three quick ground ball outs in the ninth inning to finish the game. There have been very few low-stress innings from the bullpen this year, so Zach's performance was very welcome.

O's win! They'll be back in action tomorrow at 7 p.m., going for the series win. Bud Norris will take the mound for the Orioles against Nathan Eovaldi for the Yankees.