Tillman gives O’s a win before break
Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman did not make the American League All-Star team, but he will head into the midseason break as one of only six pitchers in the majors with 12 victories.
He held the Los Angeles Angels to three hits over seven innings as the Orioles took the series with a 4-2 victory before an announced 32,963 on a warm and humid Sunday at Camden Yards.
Tillman bruised his All-Star credentials with a recent threestart slump during which he allowed 14 earned runs over 142⁄ innings, but came back to pitch well in his final two starts of the non-mathematical first half, giving up just two runs on eight hits over 14 innings.
He gave up a first-inning RBI double to Angels slugger Mike Trout and then never looked back, allowing just two singles over the next six innings in a 106-pitch performance that featured 61 strikes. The Orioles are 16-3 in his 2016 starts and both he and the club headed into the break with some much-needed momentum.
“I don’t worry too much about the personal stuff,” Tillman said, “but I think we had a pretty solid first half. We need to keep playing good baseball to get to where we want to be at the end of this deal.”
Tillman denied any disappointment over being left off the All-Star team and manager Buck Showalter said he selfishly was glad Tillman would get to rest up for the second half.
“I know there’s one thing that Chris wants to really go to, and that’s the last game of the World Series,” Showalter said. “That’s what he’s really interested in.”
What offensive help Tillman needed came in the fourth inning, when Mark Trumbo led off with a single off Angels starter Tim The Angels’ Kole Calhoun slides past Orioles catcher Matt Wieters in the first inning. Calhoun was first called out, but then ruled safe on a replay appeal. Lincecum and Chris Davis blasted his 22nd home run of the season. The Orioles added another run in the sixth when a pop fly by Pedro Alvarez dropped into shallow left field and J.J. Hardy sent Lincecum packing with an RBI single to center.
The Angels got a run back off All-Star setup man Brad Brach, but the runner got into scoring position on a two-base error by Trumbo, so the run did not affect Brach’s sub-1.00 ERA.
Hardy would drive in another run, in the eighth inning, with his third homer of the year and first since April 12.
Alvarez finished with three hits for the fifth time this season and Adam Jones also had three hits.
Closer Zach Britton pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his 27th save in 27 opportunities.
It was the Orioles’ second straight series victory over a Los Angeles team and it kept them two games ahead of the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings. They have won four of five games since ending a five-game losing streak at Dodger Stadium.
Their season will resume on the road Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. Angels get a replay run: The first run of the game scored on Trout’s long double, but it didn’t get up onto the scoreboard until Angels manager Mike Scioscia challenged an out call at the plate. Kole Calhoun came all the way around from first base and was originally ruled out on a close play after strong and accurate throws by Trumbo and second baseman Jonathan Schoop, but the replay showed that Calhoun’s foot crossed the plate before catcher Matt Wieters applied the tag. Kim comes up sore: Hyun Soo Kim was removed from the game after the first inning with a strained right hamstring. He grounded out to second base in his first at-bat and looked slow running the play out. Joey Rickard replaced him in left field at the start of the second inning.