Davis vs. Cabrera in Motown (Gonzalez leaves team, O's lose 5-1)

Triple Crown contender Miguel Cabrera hit his 19th home run tonight in Detroit. Triple Crown contender Chris Davis hit his 24th home run in the following inning. Two heavyweights standing toe-to-toe in the center of the ring, if you'll excuse the boxing analogy. Cabrera is ahead on points right now, since he belted a two-run shot off Jake Arrieta in the bottom of the first inning. Davis countered with a solo shot off Max Scherzer, the ball landing pretty much in the exact same spot. Cabrera is batting .355 with 19 homers and 71 RBIs. Davis is batting .337 with 24 homers and 61 RBIs. They're 1-2 in voting for the All-Star Game. Pretty hard to separate these guys, no matter how many times the referee tries to step in between them. Cabrera launched a 90 mph slider from Arrieta. Davis crushed a 92 mph fastball. I'm still pushing for a steel cage match. Heck, I'd spend big in pay-per-view to watch them compete in a home run derby. Meanwhile, Dylan Bundy threw from 90 feet today in Sarasota, as scheduled. He made 25 throws and I'm told that there were no complaints. Manager Buck Showalter told reporters back in Baltimore that Bundy would twice make 25 throws, which added up to 50 on my calculator, but he apparently made 25 today. Any session that's completed without tightness in his forearm/elbow area is considered a positive. Update: Miguel Gonzalez has left the team to join his wife in California for the birth of their first child, news that was first relayed by MASN play-by-play man Gary Thorne. Gonzalez will be placed on paternity leave, which lasts three days. The Orioles could replace him on the 25-man roster with left-hander Zach Britton, who's starting Tuesday. Britton is on the 24-hour taxi squad. Kevin Gausman also would be eligible to return to the Orioles. As for tonight's game, Austin Jackson collected his second hit in two innings, a two-out RBI single to increase Detroit's lead to 3-1. Jackson is 3-for-5 lifetime against Arrieta, who has thrown 37 pitches (28 strikes) in two innings. Arrieta has allowed three runs and five hits. Update II: Victor Martinez's sacrifice fly and Jhonny Peralta's RBI single increased Detroit's lead to 5-1 in the fifth. Arrieta is done after 4 2/3 innings. He's charged with five runs and 10 hits, with one walk, three strikeouts, one home run and one wild pitch. He threw 82 pitches, 58 for strikes. The walk was intentional, and that's the best part of Arrieta's line tonight. Down on the farm, Tsuyoshi Wada, making his first start since being optioned to Triple-A Norfolk, has allowed one run and five hits over six innings. He's walked none and struck out eight. Update III: The Orioles lost the first game of this series, 5-1, at Comerica Park. Troy Patton surrendered three hits in 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Pedro Strop, in his first outing since allowing four runs in one-third of an inning against the Angels on June 12, gave up one hit, struck out two and threw a wild pitch in the eighth. Manny Machado's 14-game hitting streak came to an end. Wada worked a career-high 6 2/3 innings tonight at Norfolk and allowed one run and five hits, with no walks and eight strikeouts. He threw 95 pitches, 66 for strikes.