Mike Wright may have strained calf muscle

Rookie pitcher Mike Wright may have strained his left calf muscle tonight. He's expected to undergo an MRI on Saturday to determine the severity of his injury, and the Orioles may be forced to call up another reliever.

Wright limped off the field in the top of the fifth inning of the Orioles' 8-7 victory over the Tigers before 36,985 at Camden Yards. The club announced that he was bothered by a cramp, but it may be more serious.

"Initially, we thought it was a cramp," said manager Buck Showalter after his club won for the sixth time in seven games and moved within one of the second wild card spot. "He said it felt a lot better after 2/3 of an inning when he came in. And then he went back out and I noticed he looked a little ginger going back out there between innings. You could see his velocity was at 91.

"We think it may be a strain instead of a cramp, but we'll probably get it looked at tomorrow. An MRI or A, whatever the initials are nowadays. We'll see what he is tomorrow."

Wright said he's never experienced a calf injury before this season.

"My last outing at Norfolk, the last inning I thought I caught a cramp and honestly, that's all it was, a cramp," he said. "The next couple of days, I felt fine. I threw a bullpen yesterday and felt perfectly fine, and then today, the throwdown from (Matt) Wieters, I felt it grab pretty good."

The Orioles are discussing whether to call up another reliever. T.J. McFarland tossed an inning tonight with Triple-A Norfolk.

"If we don't feel like Mike Wright is ready to go, we'll probably talk about adding somebody," Showalter said.

"In some cases, you can't be picky. There were phone calls made to Norfolk tonight. We took their starters two nights in a row."

The Orioles were hoping to avoid using Wright in case Chris Tillman can't make Monday night's start in Oakland. Tillman has a sprained left ankle.

"Chris is a little better, but i think tomorrow is a big day with Tillman, whether or not he'll make Monday's start," Showalter said. "We'll know probably after tomorrow."

The Orioles fell behind 7-0 last night and 6-0 tonight before posting their biggest comeback win of the season. Adam Jones hit a three-run homer in the fifth, and Manny Machado had a two-run shot in the sixth.

"We kind of dug ourselves a hole both nights with a good offensive team, and our guys found a way," Showalter said. "It's tough, tough sledding. Adam obviously had a big blow. There were a lot of big at-bats in there. The selectivity was big, too."

Wei-Yin Chen needed to be bailed out after working only 3 1/3 innings and allowing six runs and 10 hits.

"Matt and I were talking," Showalter said. "It was probably the low point with his command this year. Matt was saying he hadn't seen him that wild in the strike zone. Trying to go in and missing out over the plate. They were on him pretty good. We were trying to get a few innings out of him because it's kind of challenging down there."

Mychal Givens earned his first major league win in his second appearance with 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

"Mychal got the win, right?" Showalter said. "That's pretty cool. I was wondering why J.R. (John Russell) brought in the lineup card. He deserved it. So did two or three others."

Before the game, the Orioles designated Chris Parmelee for assignment to create room for outfielder Gerardo Parra.

"We'd like to keep them all," Showalter said. "It was a good offseason sign. We gave him the opportunity. He had a good year going in Norfolk, came here, was good early on, playing good defense for us. What it comes down to is we like Parra to help us more. Let's see where the season takes us."