Givens on facing Cabrera, Tillman on his return, plus more

DETROIT - For a game in which just four runs were scored, there were clutch performances all over for the Orioles this afternoon at Comerica Park.

They beat Detroit 3-1 to win the final two games of the series after Friday's 4-3 loss. They tie Toronto at 78-64 for second in the division and for the first American League wild card spot. They stay two games behind first-place Boston and head to Fenway Park for a big series on Monday night.

Where to start with this win? It could be with Chris Tillman, who returned to the rotation allowing one run over six innings. It could be with Michael Bourn, who hit a two-run homer off Justin Verlander in his eighth game with his new team. It could be with Mychal Givens, who got Miguel Cabrera to hit into a double play with the game on the line. It could be with Adam Jones, who had a big series and made two outstanding catches today to back Tillman. We are leaving some Orioles out, but those were some of the highlights of one of the season's biggest wins. They hope they have more to come.

Tillman pitched for the first time since Aug. 20 after dealing with right shoulder bursitis. He feels fine and wants to make sure that holds true tomorrow as well. He outdueled Verlander and is 6-0 with an ERA of 2.45 in nine career starts against the Tigers.

He was excited to return in the heat of the pennant race.

"It was awesome," he said. "There's nothing like it. You get kind of bored and frustrated sitting on the bench that long and not being able to help the team. It was a big series, a big win, and it's good to get out of here with the series win. It was definitely a little bit of rust there, but I felt like we were able to work through it and make pitches when we had to."

Is he convinced his shoulder issues are behind him now?

"I'll just see how I feel," Tillman said. "When this first kind of cropped up, I pitched in Oakland and felt fine, then the next day it wasn't all that hot. I'll just see how I feel. Signs are pointing good, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes."

Bourn came up big in the top of third. Facing a stedy diet of mid-90s heat from Verlander, he turned on a 96 mph heater for a two-run shot. He had three homers in 358 plate appearances earlier this year for Arizona and today hit his second in his 13th plate apperance with Baltimore. He's homered twice in two starts for the best homer-hitting team in the majors.

"They're rubbing off on me," Bourn said laughing. "No, I'm really out there just trying to hit the ball to any part of the field I can. I'm trying to hit the ball where it's pitched. That is the only thing I know how to do.

"I was (just) trying to touch it (his fastball), that was what I was trying to do. He can throw it by me. He was electric today and we were battling against him. A tough fight for us and we came out on top."

One of the biggest moments of the weekend came in the last of the eighth. Givens came on after Brad Brach had pitched a scoreless 1-2-3 seventh. He hit the first batter and walked the third. With a 3-1 lead, he was staring down Cabrera with the potential tie runs on base. The count went to 1-1 and then he got Cabrera to hit an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Nothing to it, just got out a future Hall of Famer in one of the biggest spots of the year.

"Just compete," Givens said. "That is the biggest thing. No matter what hitter is up there I know that is probably the best hitter out there in our generation. Just went out there to compete and try to get us out of the inning."

That he did. O's pitching allowed just eight runs and 22 hits in the series.

Here are some postgame comments from skipper Buck Showalter:

On Tillman: "It's good, any time you can get six innings, any time you get that from a starter against that lineup. You come in here and they're operating on a lot of cylinders. It's a real tribute to our pitchers to keep us in all three games like that. Chris, this time of year, I was hoping that guys don't get out of sync. I think the rest did him good. We're not out of the woods. We'll see how he feels tomorrow and the next day. We're going to put our best foot forward each day and see where it takes us. Hopefully, Chris is a part of that."

On Brach in the seventh and Givens in the eighth innings today: "I like the matchup, where he was, where Chris was in the sixth. I didn't want to dry-hump him. It was a good spot for him. I liked Mike at the top of the order there, and I liked Brad where they were with the left-handed hitters coming off the bench, potentially. You're picking your poison this time of year. If you bring in (Donnie) Hart, they're going to switch from a left-handed pinch-hitter to a right-handed pinch-hitter. That's why September baseball is so bogus."

On Cabrera going 0-for-9 versus the O's in this series: "Somebody's going to pay. That's the way it is. I'm glad it's going to be somebody else. Somebody will pay."

On now facing Boston: "We're going to get on a plane and go to the next hostile environment and let people continue to cast doubt on us and count us out. We like that. We've been doing it for about four years now."