Adam Jones, Travis Snider and Darren O'Day comment after O's win over Boston

Reporters have seen it before: Orioles outfielder Adam Jones just does not provide lengthy answers when describing his own play.

So it was tonight when he was asked about a couple of excellent defensive catches he made in the outfield, including the flat-out dive to rob Mookie Betts in the fifth inning of the Orioles' 5-2 win over Boston.

Did he think he would make that catch?

"Never know until you catch it," he said simply.

He had a slightly longer answer - but not by much - when he talked about the pride the Orioles take as a team in their defense.

"We've been one of the top defensive teams in baseball the last few years. It is of the utmost importance," Jones said. "Our pitching was the key tonight. Put us in a good situation. Kept the tempo up. You can make good plays when your tempo is up."

The Orioles are trying to finally get on a roll and they've now won five of their last six.

"We had a good one in the last game in Houston," Jones said. We weren't playing too well up to that point. The last week has been good. The previous week wasn't, so, now let's continue having this good week."

In the second inning, Travis Snider and Jones threw out runners at second base on consecutive plays. According to STATS, prior to tonight's game, the last major league team to have outfield assists on back-to-back plays in a single inning was the Atlanta Braves in the eighth frame on May 10 at Washington. The last time the Orioles accomplished the feat was July 18, 2009 in the fifth inning at the Chicago White Sox, with Nick Markakis and Nolan Reimold making the plays.

Snider talked about this being a team victory, but also about Jones' outstanding plays in the field.

"That was a lot of fun, watching everybody get in the mix," Snider said. "(Wei-Yin) Chen battled for us. Bullpen shut the door and we came through offensively. A good team win.

"Getting to play next to Andrew McCutchen and now Adam Jones, I'm pretty spoiled. Just a tremendous player. Good to see things coming together, guys have been working hard all year, so we can go out and play like that."

He said teams can gain momentum from defensive plays just like they can from a big hit.

"Absolutely. I think there are two sides to baseball for a reason," he said. "We've seen guys make big plays baserunning, too. We know to be successful, we have to be on point in every aspect of the game every single night. We strive to be great in everything we do and that was a good example of it tonight."

Darren O'Day, who got the final six outs, talked about the O's outfield defense in the win and Jones' great play against Betts.

"Still not my personal favorite. The one where he robbed the home run and threw the guy out tagging up is my favorite," O'Day said. "You saw (Dustin) Pedroia, he was getting it out of the box. He knew if Delmon (Young) got to it, he could be thrown out. Our outfielders put guys on notice."

The Orioles bullpen has recently held up to the challenge of playing a man short with Brian Matusz out while serving an eight-game suspension. O'Day said the Orioles do feel challenged by the situation.

"We're short a man, so we're all going to get extended a little bit," he said. "Guys love to pitch. We've all gone multiple innings before and we're capable of doing it and Buck (Showalter) is doing a good job of managing us.

"It is absolutely a challenge. You saw what (Zach) Britton had to do last night. He had to get in during the eighth and throw a lot of pitches during a one-run game. That is not easy to do. But we're ready to go and do what we get paid to do. I enjoy challenges. It is very motivating. We miss Matusz. I miss his left arm, he's a good pitcher. It's a good group of guys that respond to challenges. We're happy where we are at."

O'Day ended tonight's game striking out the side on 12 pitches to earn his second save - and his longest career save at two innings.

"That was fun. Good atmosphere tonight and it's always nice to pitch well. Strikeouts are fun, but not necessary," he said.

Over his last 21 games, O'Day is 2-0 with two saves and an ERA of 0.90. His four strikeouts tonight are one off his career best.