Chris Tillman on his strong outing, Travis Snider on his great catch

A two-game display of pitching and power. Five homers, two shutouts and a 41-34 record for the Orioles, who move into first place in the American League East by percentage points.

For Chris Tillman, it was a much-needed outing. He pitched seven scoreless on four hits, throwing 110 pitches in tonight's 8-0 win over Cleveland. He began the day with a 6.22 ERA. What was the difference?

"I think I was able to command the fastball and make some good pitches early on. I think that is the key to getting deep into the ballgame," Tillman said. "They're a good hitting club and you have to be able to execute the pitches that you need to.

"It's big, it's big (sweeping the doubleheader). It was a good day. Ubaldo (Jimenez) went out and did an outstanding job. There was a lot of offense today, and that was big in both games. Ubaldo was fun to watch. We (had) some key hits early today, Flash (Ryan Flaherty) had a big-time hit for us. (Travis) Snider made an outstanding play, and the defense was there."

Tillman was pitching on two extra days of rest but said that was not a factor in his pitching better tonight.

"I've never been big on that. It never hurts, but I like going on my day. I think that is important as a starter to every fifth day make your start," he said.

As for surging into first place off a run of 18 wins over 23 games, Tillman wasn't getting too carried away over that.

"You know what, we don't look into that too much," he said. " I think we just have to keep our focus on playing good baseball. I think that is what this team will do. We won't buy into all that too much. You can get complacent and stuff can start to snowball, so we'll keep pushing and keep trying to get better."

Tillman recorded his first scoreless start since Aug. 3, 2014 against Seattle. He is now 5-0 with a 1.03 ERA in his last six outings against the American League Central.

Snider was asked about his remarkable diving catch in the top of the sixth which robbed Cleveland's Francisco Lindor of an extra-base hit.

"I haven't even had a chance to see it," he said. "I just feel bad for the left-center field grass. Just saw the ball and it was over your left shoulder, you have to turn and run as fast as you can and I'm not that fast. Was able to get there and try to lay out for the team and come up with one.

"I think I was the most surprised person in the stadium that I caught the ball so I had to kind of soak it in for a second to make sure it was in there."

That defense tonight backed the pitchers, who put up 18 shutout innings while allowing 12 hits.

"Outstanding. Chris was phenomenal," Snider said. "Gave our bullpen, you know, pretty light work for a doubleheader. We play hard for them and they go out there and put it out there for us."

The day could not have gone much better with back-to-back shutouts.

"I just joking with the guys, in the minor leagues you used to get pitchers' BP when they got a shutout," Snider said. "They got two, so maybe they'll get two rounds of BP tomorrow."