Hardy on winning hit, O'Day on his escape act and more from the clubhouse

The Orioles were 0-16 this year when scoring two runs or less until tonight's 2-1, walk-off win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

J.J. Hardy began the night batting .194, but he ended it getting mobbed by his teammates after his single provided the winning run and broke a 1-1 tie in the last of the ninth. He hit a 1-0 pitch from Steve Geltz into left, pinch-runner Everth Cabrera scored and the celebration was on for 45,505 at the Yard.

"Just see the ball and put a good swing on it," Hardy said. "That is all I'm thinking. Trying to simplify it. It's been a grind and I'm working at it every day. It's going to come. It's going to come soon.

"It's nice (to win with just two runs). We need to score more runs. It was a big win for us. Huge. Huge. This was a big night for us."

Hardy talked about starting pitcher Miguel Gonzalez, who went eight innings and allowed just three hits and one run.

"Awesome. He threw great," Hardy said. "Hitting his spots. From shortstop, it looked nasty."

After a season of ups and downs, could this win propel the Orioles into a hot streak?

"Who knows? It's been inconsistent, but doesn't mean we can't come together and we're working at it, so you know hopefully tonight is the game that does that for us," Hardy said.

Before Hardy's heroics, we saw some from reliever Darren O'Day. He got into and out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the top of the ninth. He got a strikeout, a strikeout and a groundout to pull off the amazing escape act and keep the game tied 1-1.

"It's not how we drew it up, but any time you can put a zero on the board, it's exciting," O'Day said. "I made some good pitches to the first three hitters. Good mound visit by Dave Wallace. He had it all figured out and talked to me for a minute.

"I kind of enjoy being in situations with men on base. I don't mind it. I don't feel like the game is lost if a guy is on second or third. That hitter is just as anxious as you."

O'Day's grand escape got the crowd fired up and provided the O's offense a lift heading to the last of the ninth.

"It is definitely a momentum swing," he said. "Especially with that crowd we had tonight. I don't notice the crowd much when I'm pitching but I noticed when I had two outs and two strikes how loud they got. Pretty impressive.

"That was big time. Miguel was awesome. Just about as good as I've seen him. We didn't want to go to extras. That's four games is just over 48 hours, so I'm sure some guys were tired. That was big time by Travis (Snider), CD (Chris Davis) and J.J.," O'Day said.

Before the Orioles could win it, they had to tie it, and Chris Davis did with a solo homer off Kevin Jepsen in the seventh, his fourth homer in three days and over a four-game span.

"I was trying to go up there and get a good pitch to hit," Davis said. "In that situation, new guy out of the bullpen. A guy I had seen a number of times. Just wanted a pitch to drive and not try to do too much."

So why has it turned around in recent days for Davis? Over his last four games, he is 6-for-13 with a double, four homers and seven RBIs.

"Obviously have worked a lot early on taking a lot of swings," Davis said. "The last few days just kind of took a step back and relaxed a little bit. Anytime you are not where you want to be you just continue to go and find the positives and know that at some point it is going to click."

Gonzalez talked about his outing. He went a season-high eight innings, allowing just the three hits on 96 pitches. He has an ERA of 0.84 in three 2015 starts against the Rays.

"Felt great," he said. "Was feeling really good from the first inning. My command was good, and Caleb (Joseph) did a really good job of changing speeds. We played real well and won this game."

Gonzalez said getting deep into this game was a priority for him tonight.

"Of course. We knew that our bullpen was a little short today. O'Day in the ninth, that was really exciting to watch. I was nervous but I knew he would get it done," he said.

This was Buck Showalter's 400th win as Orioles manager. Also, Showalter has now passed Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog for sole possession of 35th place on the all-time managerial wins list with 1,282 career wins. He now trails Hall of Famer Frank Selee (1,284) for 34th on the all-time list.

This is the Orioles second walk-off win of the year. They beat Boston at home on April 25th on David Lough's homer in the last of the tenth.