The O's bullpen carried a heavy load, plus other notes and minor league results

They may not have known it heading into yesterday's game, but the Orioles bullpen would be quite busy in Thursday's 5-4 win over Seattle.

After a rain delay of two hours and five minutes, starter Chris Tillman did not return after pitching the first three innings. So, the O's bullpen had to cover six innings, and six different pitchers were used to get the 18 outs.

Tommy Hunter pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the eighth to keep the game tied 4-4. When J.J. Hardy drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning, Hunter got the win. He said the bullpen pitchers were ready to carry a heavy load yesterday.

"That is what a bullpen is supposed to do. Pick the team up when a rain delay comes or something happens and the starter gets shortened up. It was just a crazy long day. Now get back out there tomorrow because we've got another one," he said.

The longest outing by the bullpen pitchers before yesterday was the 6 1/3 innings pitched on April 12 versus Toronto.

Since April 29, the O's bullpen has one of the best ERAs in the majors at 2.45.

More notes on the Orioles:

* Steve Pearce hit his first career grand slam yesterday in the first inning. He had driven in four runs total over his previous 12 games before matching that with one swing. Pearce was batting just .190 this year with runners in scoring position before his slam against J.A. Happ.

* Tillman's rain-shortened start was his shortest start since April 12, when he went 2 2/3 versus Toronto. He has not recorded a win over his last five outings, going 0-4 with a 6.41 ERA. Thursday was the first time in Tillman's career he did not earn a victory against Seattle. He entered that start 6-0 with a 2.03 ERA in six outings against the Mariners. The O's are now 14-6 in Tillman's last 20 starts.

* Manny Machado has now hit safely in 14 of his last 16 games (.323/.373/.484), including a four-game hitting streak (.333/.412/.333) after going 1-for-4.

* The Orioles used a season-high seven pitchers in the game, the most since using eight on September 7, 2014 at Tampa Bay.

* After scoring just five runs on 15 hits in three games over the weekend against the Angels, the Orioles scored 16 runs with 29 hits in three games against Seattle. The Orioles hit .163 in the Los Angeles series and went 1-for-10 (.100) with runners in scoring position. They hit .287 against Seattle and hit .417 (10-for-24) with RISP in the series.

In the minors: Double-A Bowie right-hander Dylan Bundy had a strong outing last night as the Baysox lost 1-0 at Trenton in 13 innings. Pitching four innings for the first time in 2015, he gave up just two hits and no runs with no walks and five strikeouts. Bundy, who threw 65 pitches, lowered his ERA to 3.68. He has not allowed a run in five of his eight Baysox starts.

Bowie (21-19) took two of three in this series despite scoring just six runs on 14 hits in the three games.

Single-A Frederick (22-19) won 4-3 at Myrtle Beach as Trey Mancini went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs. Jon Keller got the win with two innings of scoreless relief and Cody Wheeler recorded his sixth save as Frederick moved into a first-place tie in the Northern Division.

Single-A Delmarva (22-18) beat West Virginia 5-4. Conor Bierfeldt hit a grand slam to improve his league-leading RBI total to 40. That is 12 more than the next closest O's minor leaguer, his Delmarva teammate Alex Murphy, who has 28. Bierfeldt has five multi-RBI games over his last seven contests with 14 RBIs in that stretch. Donnie Hart recorded his ninth save for the Shorebirds.