Machado, Gonzalez, Pearce and more comment after O's beat Cleveland

Manny Machado returned to the O's lineup today, and his homer in the fifth inning put the Orioles ahead by one. The team went on to beat Cleveland 4-2. Machado said his groin injury held up fine today in his first game action since Thursday. "No, it didn't bother me at all," he said. "Had it wrapped pretty good. Everything went well. Everything felt good. Feels much better than it was when it first happened. "It was a relief that I was able to go out there and run the bases, take swings and catch grounders without any pain. It was icing on the cake with the home run. Just a big relief." Machado pumped his fist after he hit the go-ahead homer, a rare show of emotion from the O's third baseman. "It was just an adrenaline rush. I thought the ball would be off the wall, but it kept carrying and my emotions came out a little bit," Machado said as he extended his hitting streak to eight games. Miguel Gonzalez went six innings to get the win, allowing just four hits and two runs. "They were aggressive, had to make some pitches and try not to be too fine. Strike zone was a little tight," Gonzalez said. "Just tried to keep the ball down. It's going to be a happy flight. We did a pretty good offensively and defensively. Our bullpen guys did a good job putting up zeroes." Someone pointed out that the Orioles won on Sunday for just the second time this season. They are now 2-6 on Sundays in 2014. "Every game is important, it's on the line. I thought we came out strong today," Gonzalez said as he recorded his eighth consecutive start of allowing three or fewer earned runs. Subbing once again for Chris Davis, who began a two-day paternity leave today, Steve Pearce had another big game. He went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and is now batting .333. Pearce is 7-for-13 during a five-game hitting streak. "Just trying to hold the fort down until Chris gets back. Feels good to contribute but have to keep on going," he said. "It's just my job. I have to find some way to stay sharp, and when I get my opportunity, I have to jump all over it. I take a lot of pride in that, it's my job." Pearce said it was important to get this win to stay above .500 and split this series with the Indians before a long 10-game road trip set to start on Monday. "Very important. It was a great game," Pearce said. "Miguel had a tough first inning and then turned it around, then pitched awesome. He just (gave) us a great shot to win. Great team win. Have to carry that over as we now face a tough Milwaukee team." Caleb Joseph was behind the plate today, and the Orioles improved to 5-3 in the eight games he has started at catcher. "That is what I put on myself when I came here. To try to win the games when I'm behind the plate," Joseph said. "A lot of my focus is on the scouting reports and trying to work off the pitchers and get them to go deep." The O's broke a 2-2 tie when Machado and Nelson Cruz homered in the fifth inning. "Manny put a great swing on that pitch," Cruz said. "My pitch was a breaking pitch. Overall, it was a great win. Gonzalez threw the ball well and the bullpen was fantastic." Cruz, who homered for the fourth time in six games, took over the major league lead with 16 homers. Does he ever check out the stat sheet? "Sometimes you look at it. They show it everywhere but I don't pay too much attention to that stuff," he said. "The main thing is to help this team win."