Darren O'Day on being in first place right now, plus other O's notes

The Orioles have moved from fourth place to first place. But with 84 games to go, pitcher Darren O'Day said it's too soon to focus much on the standings right now.

"I don't think the standings necessarily are a big deal yet," he said. "We are a proud team and we won the division last year. It's going to be a challenge with everyone coming for us, but we've been playing better baseball lately. We knew we would, it was just a matter of time."

In his own unique and somewhat tongue-in-cheek way, O'Day said he could see how rough May was going for the Orioles. They finished the month going 13-16 and ended it with an overall record of 23-26. But it was no time for too much concern, he said.

"For a while there, we had a bad bullpen, we couldn't catch the ball and our baserunning was terrible," O'Day said. "Those were all things I heard. We remedied all that and we knew we would. We have good instructors and guys that play hard and pay attention to detail. We didn't like losing and we were not OK with it, but we felt we would turn it around."

Once again in 2015, the bullpen is a major factor in the Orioles' success. The Orioles 'pen has thrived with some players that have been here awhile and they've also gotten key contributions from newcomers.

"A guy like Chaz Roe has been a revelation," O'Day said. "We talked about it in spring training looking at the bullpen. Who is going to be a Brad Brach this year? He came out of nowhere last year and now is a very important part of the bullpen. Chaz has worked his way into that. Guys, when they get their opportunity, look to seize it."

More notes on the Orioles:

* After getting the win last night, lefty Wei-Yin Chen is now 5-0 with a 1.80 ERA in five career starts (all quality starts) against the Rangers. He tied a career-high by pitching eight innings, the fifth time in his career and the third time this season he's reached that mark. Over his last five starts, Chen has gone 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA and four quality starts, allowing two earned runs or less in each of the five outings. The Orioles are 5-0 in those games.

* The Orioles went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring postion last night. But over their past 12 games, they are batting .354 (35-for-99) with RISP.

* Zach Britton converted his career-high 19th consecutive save opportunity, surpassing his streak of 18 straight save chances from July 19-Sept. 4, 2014. He recorded his 60th career save, tying Dick Hall (60 saves, 1961-1971) for eighth place on the Orioles' all-time saves list. Britton has given up two earned runs over his last 20 outings, dating to May 17, for an ERA of 0.87.

* The Orioles are 12-3 in their last 15 games against Texas and 7-2 in their last nine home games versus the Rangers.

* Manny Machado went 0-for-4 and that snapped his season-high hitting streak at 12 games. He hit .412/.455/706, during the second-longest hitting streak of his career, behind only a 14-game stretch (June 2-16, 2013). His 12-game streak matched Jimmy Paredes (May 1-18) for the longest hitting streak by an Oriole this year.