A look at last night's win and other notes

After losing the first two games of the series with the Tigers and losing a one-run lead in the eighth inning on Friday, it felt like a big game for the Orioles last night.

It was a big one to win, as they beat the Tigers 5-2 at Oriole Park. Coming into this series, they wanted more than a four-game split, but if they get that today, they will head to the West Coast later this afternoon with some momentum.

Wade Miley needed 113 pitches to get through five innings. But at least he put up four zeros after Justin Upton hit a two-run homer in the first inning. Upton was 7-for-39 (.179) in his career with no homers against the Orioles before this series. In this series, he is 4-for-12 with three homers and eight RBIs.

Last night featured a rare curtain call at Camden Yards and Tim Beckham got it. He produced his fifth straight multi-hit game last night, going 2-for-4 and homering for the third game in a row. The eighth-inning homer gave the O's a 4-2 lead after Welington Castillo's homer the inning before broke a 2-2 tie.

In five games with the Orioles, Beckham is 13-for-20 (.650) with three doubles, a triple, three homers and five RBIs. He is 9-for-12 over his past three games. He also hit the 10,000th regular season home run in Orioles history. He has homered in three straight games for the first time in his career. He is hitting .462 (18-for-39) in 10 games at Oriole Park this season.

The bullpen protected the late lead and the Orioles will try to move to back within one game of .500 this afternoon at Oriole Park.

Bullpen bound: Loyalty only goes so far, and manager Buck Showalter announced Saturday that Chris Tillman is headed to pitch out of the bullpen. Tillman gave the club little choice. He is 1-7 with an ERA of 8.10 over 15 starts. He has given up eight runs and seven runs his past two outings.

Thursday's game was particularly disappointing. The Orioles entered a series with the Tigers riding a five-game win streak during which their starters pitched to an ERA of 0.76. But then Tillman gave up seven runs over two-plus innings and put his team in a 7-0 hole.

After the game he said: "It's killing me right now, it really is. But you can't dwell on that. You've got to take the positives and run with them. I saw a lot tonight. I know the scoreboard won't show it and most people won't see it. But there were a lot of good things that happened."

Unfortunately, not nearly enough have happened to the right-hander this year. He insists he's healthy, but the results have been poor. Now we wait to see if he can find something in the bullpen and help this team before the year is out. For now, the Orioles are back to a five-man rotation, but they have an eight-man bullpen.

New guy at Bowie: The Orioles acquired 23-year-old right-hander Yefry Ramirez from the Yankees for international bonus slots on Monday. From Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Ramirez was having a good year for Double-A Trenton, going 10-3 with a 3.41 ERA in 18 starts.

Ramirez was added by the Yankees to their 40-man roster last winter in advance of the Rule 5 draft. He ended the 2016 season ranked as New York's No. 23 prospect by Baseball America.

Last night, he made his first start in this organization, pitching for Double-A Bowie at Portland. He went 5 2/3 innings, allowing five hits and three runs with five walks and three strikeouts. He allowed two homers. Through Friday's games, Ramirez was the Eastern League leader in wins and ranked fifth in ERA.

Bowie won that game last night 13-7. Garabez Rosa went 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. DJ Stewart went 2-for-4 and hit a grand slam on a six-RBI night. Bowie went 19-for-38 in that game and went 8-for-16 with runners in scoring position.