With his back to the wall, O'Day went for the strikeout (plus other notes)

Darren O'Day said sometimes you do go for a strikeout. Take the top of the ninth inning last night: the game was tied 1-1 with Tampa Bay, and O'Day gave up two singles and hit a batter to load the bases with no outs.

Then Steven Souza Jr. came up. He had homered earlier in the game.

"Yeah, a sac fly can score a run there," O'Day said. "You have to be able to strike a guy out once in a while when you are in the bullpen. So yeah, either strikeout, double play or pop up would have been good there. But a strikeout is optimal."

O'Day got two strikeouts and then a groundout to pull off the great escape and send the Orioles up to bat with a chance for a walk-off win, which they would get.

Has anyone noticed how good a year O'Day is having? He is now 1-0 with a 0.95 ERA with two walks and 20 strikeouts over 19 innings. Opponent batters are hitting just .154 against him with runners in scoring position and are 0-for-6 with the bases loaded after going 0-for-3 Friday night.

Chris Davis homered in the seventh off Kevin Jepsen to tie the game 1-1 and set the stage for the ninth inning, where the O's won it on J.J. Hardy's two-out, RBI single.

"That was huge," Davis said of the win. "Obviously Miggy (Miguel Gonzalez) threw the ball well. Had the home run and we battled back. Huge by Darren getting out of that inning. A tough spot to be in. I thought defensively tonight we did a good job making plays and we stayed within ourselves at the plate on offense and we were able to get the win."

How big was this for the team?

"It was big. Great crowd tonight. We heard them get loud when Darren came in. Anytime you have a big crowd at home you want to win," Davis said.

Miguel Gonzalez pitched a very strong eight innings allowing just three hits and one run. After pitching seven innings or more in six of 26 starts last year, he has done now so five times in 10 outings this season.

"Every offseason I try to do the same thing. Just coming in this year my goal was to get to 200 innings and stay healthy, which is the most important thing for me," Gonzalez said.

A few more notes on the O's and Rays:

* Gonzalez has an ERA of 0.84 this year in three starts against the Rays. He now has an ERA of 2.52 in five home starts. In 48 career games against American League East opponents, Gonzalez is 20-11 with an ERA of 3.20 with 27 quality starts.

* The Orioles pitching has been pretty solid since May 13. In 16 games since then, the team ERA is 3.07, lowering the ERA for the season for the O's staff from 4.31 to 3.87.

* The Orioles have now won three of their last four one-run games and are 7-7 on the season in one-run contests.

* Tampa Bay starter Nathan Karns has allowed two runs or less in eight of his last nine starts, including six in a row. He is 3-1 with a 2.63 ERA in that span.

* The Rays fell one game under the .500 mark (24-25) with the loss. The Rays have lost six in a row, scoring two runs or less five times during the streak with 10 runs total over that span.

* The Orioles are 5-2 against the Rays, allowing just 14 runs in those games with a team ERA of 2.03. In their last five games, they have allowed just seven runs total to the Rays giving up two, two, zero, two and one run.

* The O's have won three of four, four of six and eight of their last 13 games. A win today would move the Orioles back to .500 for the first time since May 5 when they were 12-12.