Showalter: "The games are dwindling and it's that time"

The Orioles have delivered three walk-off home runs in six games of this homestand - August 14, 15 and 19 if you want to mark your calendars. Henry Urrutia's liner into the left field seats tonight off Mets reliever Carlos Torres was especially memorable.

Urrutia led off the bottom of the ninth with his first major league home run to give the Orioles a 5-4 win over the Mets before 36,165 at Camden Yards.

According to STATS, Urrutia became the fifth Oriole whose first home run was a walk-off, joining Merv Rettenmund on Aug. 27, 1968, Jim Hardin on May 10, 1969, Dave Criscione on July 25, 1977 and Chris Hoiles on June 27, 1990.

The last player to do was Atlanta's Christian Bethancourt on June 6, 2015.

"It's cool," said manager Buck Showalter. "You know what it means? It means the Orioles won. That's the biggest thing you take out of it and that's always a good thing.

"That's a real good club over there. We didn't see three of the other starting pitchers they've got. Shortstop's a good player, the second baseman wore us out. It's a good team. You can see why they're ahead in their division. Washington's got their hands full."

Urrutia isn't the only player to start contributing after a recent call-up. Steve Clevenger had two more hits and an RBI.

"We talk all the time, it's kind of who we are," Showalter said. "The guys are doing the job who have come up. You try to give an opportunity to the people who are here and the people who are doing what they're supposed to be doing down there, and that's how it has to work with us. But it's one thing to have an opportunity and another to run with it. I'm sure Henry was glad he was in Camden and not Norfolk, for a lot of reasons. One of them being the ballpark."

Urrutia, who defected from Cuba and finally arrived in the U.S. in February 2013, spoke tonight of realizing his dream as he rounded the bases. His eyes were moist with tears as he talked about giving the baseball to his young son. Everyone on the team took in the moment.

"All you have to do is walk down here and see his wife and baby outside there," Showalter said. "Pretty cool. I like being able to take that in. It's been a long road for Henry.

"The games are dwindling and it's that time. That's why they call it the dog days of August. They're here."

The Orioles settled for a split of the two-game series and were glad to get rid of the Mets.

"That's a good bullpen, a good starting rotation," he said. "We've got another team (the Twins) fighting tooth and nail to get into the playoffs coming in here. We ain't backing into nothing. You're going to have to earn it and tonight we did against a very good team."

Ubaldo Jimenez allowed three runs and five hits, with four walks, in five innings.

"Just command issues," Showalter said. "Didn't let him get away from him. Kept us engaged in the score, but he had 94-95 pitches after five. He wanted to stay out there for one more inning, but where they were in the order, and he really had to work hard on a sticky night. But he kept us engaged in the game and didn't let it get away from him.

"I know it was frustrating for him. He had a lot of borderline pitches that didn't go his way that could have changed a lot of situations."

Jonathan Schoop hit a two-run homer in the sixth to ease some of the pain from his defensive struggles last night.

"I thought Jonathan had a big night in a lot of ways," Showalter said. "You see some toughness that you like about him because he had some tough at-bats early on and came back and turned a couple big double plays and kept a ball fair that seemed like the 100th breaking ball that he had seen. They got that one in a spot where he could do something with it."