Jorge Rondon optioned, Buck Showalter on 6-1 loss

Tyler Wilson is the confirmed starter for Monday night's series opener in Oakland. Jorge Rondon, who tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings today in his Orioles debut, has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk to make room on the 25-man roster.

Manager Buck Showalter summed up the reasons why the Orioles had to settle for a split of their four-game series with the Tigers, why they kept falling behind early and making it more difficult to compete.

"They're a good offensive team," he said, "and we didn't pitch particularly well."

Only Kevin Gausman gave the Orioles a quality start. They received three starts of 4 2/3 innings or fewer in the series.

Ubaldo Jimenez served up J.D. Martinez's three-run homer in the first today, retired 12 in a row and allowed three runs in the fifth.

Jimenez has registered a 10.60 ERA in four starts since the break.

"He was wild in the strike zone again," Showalter said. "It didn't really show up a lot in the walk total. But he had trouble getting the ball where he wanted to get it, especially with some counts in his favor.

"It was a big challenge for him in the first inning. It looked like he was going to get through it, and then Martinez did what he's been doing to a lot of people. Three of the four days, we've been down pretty big early. It was a challenge for the guys.

"Gaus got the ball where we need to get it and had some success last night, but you've got to be consistent with it."

Rondon saved the bullpen. He took over for Jimenez and tamed the Tigers, and Brian Matusz retired the side in order in the ninth.

"Rondon was really good today result-wise," Showalter said. "He and Brian, that was big for us. It may not seem like it. I think if we hadn't made three or four of the defensive plays we made - Manny (Machado) was real good at third and Jonesy (Adam Jones) and Matt (Wieters) at the plate, J.J. (Hardy) made a great play up the middle - otherwise we're talking about a whole different score, so try to keep that in mind.

"(Gerardo) Parra made a really nice play in left field. You could see him move on a couple fly balls that aren't easy, especially in day games where it's tough to judge depth early."

Left-hander Daniel Norris made the start after the Tigers acquired him from the Blue Jays for David Price, and he held the Orioles to one run and four hits over 7 1/3 innings.

"He's in kind of a perfect storm today where everybody knew plus-stuff young man," Showalter said. "These are the type of guys you get back for David Price, OK? And it's kind of like the type of guys you give up to get Andrew Miller. A lot of late life. You see hitters in hitter's counts who didn't center up, which tells you there's some late movement on the ball. Balls that appear strikes in the middle of the plate that end up somewhere else.

"It's also a day game/night game after three long challenging games. It's that time of the year. It's August. It somewhat happens the way the schedule is constructed. He's good. He's got a chance to be a good pitcher for them. The guy they gave up is right now. That's the way it works."

Jonathan Schoop appears to be fine after getting drilled in the hip by Nolan Reimold's throw from right field, one of the bizarre moments from today's game. There were a few of them.

"Painful initially and then there were some other things," Showalter said. "He took it well. I don't think I've seen that one before.

"He was trying to get out of the way and give Nolan a throwing lane, but couldn't quite get out of the way. It happens."

Showalter was in no mood to reflect on the positive aspects of a 5-2 homestand.

"I've moved on to Oakland," he said. "If you go in there and ask our guys would they have have taken that before we got here, no, they were shooting for all seven. That's the way you play, just like the road trip. We know the reality of the math, the way it usually works, but we did some things good, some things we have to be better at. We'll stay engaged in this and we have a challenging trip ahead of us."