Cruz, Clevenger and Gausman comment after O's loss to Detroit

In the fourth inning today, Detroit right-hander Justin Verlander threw a pitch behind Nelson Cruz. An inning later Cruz hit a three-run homer to cap off a five-run O's rally.

What did Cruz think about the Verlander pitch that went behind him?

"I cannot tell. I think he was dealing. I don't know if it was on purpose or not. Only he knows that. I think that got me going, woke me up," Cruz said.

He felt that did fire up the Orioles, who had that big inning but still lost 7-5.

"Yeah, kind of," Cruz said. "We came up short today but it was a great effort. We were down by six and scored five runs. That inning was huge.

"Unfortunately we didn't get it done. Tomorrow we have a new game, have to focus for tomorrow. We'll focus on positives from today and get it done tomorrow."

Catcher Steve Clevenger talked about O's starting pitcher Kevin Gausman, who gave up five runs and six hits over four innings to take the loss.

"He moved the ball in and out very well," Clevenger said. "We didn't really have a slider today. He kind of got a little tired, I think, and left a couple of balls up. I think he threw the ball good. He found a way to battle through."

Detroit's first two runs scored on a single by Miguel Cabrera, who had six RBIs in the series.

"He's a tough out. He's going to be on everything. But we'll leave this series in the past and move forward," Clevenger said.

Clevenger was asked about the Verlander pitch thrown behind Cruz.

"We kind of had a feeling it was going to happen at some point in this series. It is what it is. It kind of fired us up. They are still upset about Torii (Hunter), you know, rightfully so. It wasn't intentional when we threw at Torii. It is what it is," he said.

Gausman gave up two runs in the third and three in the fourth inning after he retired the first six Tigers today. He threw 87 pitches, 54 for strikes, and now has an ERA of 8.16 in major league starts.

"Wasn't too thrilled with it," Gausman said. "As the game progressed, my fastball started going up in the zone. Really the bottom half of the lineup kind of got me today."

He said pitching on just three days rest was not an issue for him this afternoon.

"My body felt fine. Everything went as expected. Felt great physically and I really couldn't even tell that I was on one day less rest. I didn't even really know how many pitches I had. I felt good about my stuff. Didn't really have the split that I've had as of late. That was what I was most upset about today," Gausman said.

The Tigers won the season series, five games to one. The Orioles had a nine-game win streak in games decided by two runs or less come to an end. Verlander is now 9-2 with a 3.43 ERA in 15 career starts against Baltimore.