Adam Jones on three wins: "Shuts up all the trade rumors"

Orioles outfielder Adam Jones went 3-for-5 with two RBIs tonight as the Orioles won their third in a row, beating Texas 10-2.

Despite these wins, the Orioles (45-49) would need four more consecutive wins just to get back to .500. But Jones made his feelings clear when asked tonight what three straight wins does for the Orioles.

"Shuts up all the trade rumors, I know that," Jones said. "We feel that we're still in this race. Long way to go. We're not just going to give up. No, I don't take offense to that (trade talk). It will die down when we win. You'll become buyers, not sellers, when you win."

He was asked if the trade rumors have been bothering him?

"It's business. You have to understand this business and don't have hard feelings with it. It's business. People can be here one day and gone the next. It's just the nature of this business. Don't get too caught up in one thing," he said.

After tonight's game, manager Buck Showalter said Jones likes to compete and be in the middle of things. He was at times tonight.

"It's been like eight or nine years of that with me trying to be like a catalyst for things," Jones said. "I just try and play this game as hard as I can and the guys feed off of that. When I get a hit, I'm on base, somehow, some way, the guys feed off of that. I'm not anything special. I just put my head down and play this game really hard.

"When you do that, good things tend to happen. The team just feeds off me. Manny (Machado) feeds off it. (Jonathan) Schoop feeds off of it and it just trickles down the rest of the lineup. I'm trying to put my head down and play this game as hard as I can with no excuses."

Right-hander Kevin Gausman set the tone for the Orioles on the mound tonight well before they scored seven runs in the seventh to blow this game open.

He took a shutout and 3-0 lead into the fifth before Joey Gallo homered to get Texas on the board. But after allowing 14 runs in seven innings in his last two starts, Gausman had it dialed back in tonight. Over six innings he gave up four hits and one run, with two walks and eight strikeouts. Gausman threw 97 pitches, 58 for strikes, getting 16 swings and misses.

It was a night where he had solid fastball command and a strong splitter. "I think it was a little bit of both. Fastball command. Had a real good feel for my split and threw some real good sliders too. You know, got some weak contact and that is what I'm obviously trying to do out there," Gausman said.

For the first time since May 19-21, the Orioles rotation recorded three consecutive quality starts. In this series, Chris Tillman, Dylan Bundy and Gausman combined to allow 10 hits and three runs over 18 innings.

"I think it is always good when you have healthy competiton between us and we are always going to try to one up on the other one, in a sense," Gausman said. "My defense played great behind me, Caleb (Joseph) called a great game. CD (Chris Davis) made some great plays. Joey (Rickard), those were some tough soft fly balls that he got to. Obviously the offense kind of exploded to. When guys are swinging the bats like we are, you try to just be the guy not to mess it up.

"Just try to be the guy not to give runs back. I've done that a lot this year. It is finally good to be able to tell those guys, 'I've got it today. Whatever you can get me great, but hopefully I don't need much.'"

Gausman described he was trying to mix up the velocity on his fastball tonight as well. "Yeah, trying to throw my sinker and my four-seam, mixing it up a little bit more. I can't throw everything straight like my four-seam. Trying to keep the hitters guessing a little bit more. Overall, I just pitched more. Used my offspeed pitches and had good fastball command for the most part," he said.

Can Gausman turn a corner and build off this one? "Obvioulsy, I have not had the year I want to this point. But we're still right there. If I can string together a great second half, we've got a shot. With all of us starters included we all know we need to pitch better and we're trying to do that."