Zach Wilt: Chris Tillman's turnaround hints of bounceback season

The Orioles snapped their three-game losing streak last night with a 3-1 victory at The Trop against the Rays on an Earl Weaver special. Rookie Joey Rickard delivered the much-needed three-run homer in the fifth, while Chris Tillman's impressive start kept the Rays bats cold. The O's righty tied a career high with nine strikeouts on the night that he would move past Jeremy Guthrie on the team's all-time starts list (154). Next up is Mike Boddicker (180), but Tillman will have a tough challenge ahead if he plans to catch Jim Palmer, who tops the list with an astounding 521 starts.

Entering Wednesday's contest, the Rays had a bit of success against Tillman. Their nine victories against him are tied with Jon Lester for their second-most against an active pitcher. They've only picked up more wins against Yankees starter CC Sabathia (14). Evan Longoria had a .333/.393/1.216 slash line against Tillman with seven homers and 10 RBIs in 56 plate appearances. He went 0-for-3 with a strikeout while the rest of the Rays offense was kept scoreless against the Birds starter.

Tillman has been a workhorse for the Orioles over his eight years with the ballclub. Coming to Baltimore from Seattle in the Erik Bedard trade, he was mostly developed through the O's farm system, never pitching above Single-A with the Mariners. He made his big league debut with the Birds in 2009 and has never made a big league relief appearance. The 2016 season marked Tillman's third consecutive opening day start for the O's, tying Mike Mussina's consecutive streak from 1998-2000.

After struggling in 31 starts last season, 2016 has been all about returning to the type of pitcher he was in his All-Star season in 2013 and that 3.34 ERA he recorded in 2014. Tillman pitched a career high 207 1/3 innings in 2014 and limited opponents to a .238 batting average. He was a critical part of a 96-win American League East champion ballclub.

Last night's start was as close to 2014 as we've seen him. Tillman threw nine pitches in the first inning (five strikes) and was perfect his first time through the Rays lineup. He escaped a two-on, no-out jam in the fourth and worked around a leadoff single in the fifth. Tillman's lowest strike percentage in an inning was 50 percent in the seventh (eight of 16), his highest was in the fifth (76.92 percent).

Tillman credited his slider after the game for much of his success. Interestingly, I believe PITCHf/x reads it as a cutter, his most effective pitch of the night with a 41.7 percent whiff rate. He also told MASNsports.com's Roch Kubatko that his curveball was important for him last night. "It was a pitch I tried to get going all last year," he said. "Fortunately, I've been able to get it going this year. I think that's a big pitch for me." I'll say. Tillman got 16.7 percent of his whiffs on the curveball last night and has 8.77 percent so far this season, compared to just 4.43 percent over all of 2015.

His success last night shouldn't come as a surprise to those watching Tillman's previous four starts of the season. I'll always wonder how he would've fared if rain didn't shorten his opening day outing when he fanned five Twins in just two innings. He entered yesterday's game after a quality start against the Blue Jays and really only struggled in an outing against the Rangers in Arlington in which their offense recorded a .391 batting average on balls in play. Tillman's 2.79 FIP is a good indicator that his already low 3.24 ERA on the season could go even lower. The stuff is working through five starts this season and we could be in store for a bounceback season for one of the Orioles' most important starters.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.