Dillon Atkinson: Believe it or not, O's need to ride Jimenez's hot hand

Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez got the call in D.C. to start in place of Orioles ace Chris Tillman - who was placed on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder bursitis - because of limited options and his past success against the Nationals. While fans griped at the fact that he is on the O's roster, much less starting, Jimenez went up against Nats ace Max Scherzer and tossed six innings of one-run ball, allowing five hits, no walks and striking out four batters. The non-promising right-hander was thrown into a no-win situation and he ended up hitting the showers knowing he nearly threw a gem.

On Tuesday night, Jimenez got the call again, but this time facing the American League East-leading Toronto Blue Jays and their potent offensive attack. Despite giving up a game-tying two-run shot in the seventh inning to Michael Saunders, Jimenez still turned in an unexpected quality start, tossing 6 2/3 innings of three-run ball. So over his last two starts, the third-year Oriole has given up just four runs over his last 12 2/3 innings against division-leading ballclubs.

Could this be a start of a hot streak for the 32-year-old?

Many were quick to erase the veteran right-hander's first half of 2015 from their memory. In his 17 starts prior to the All-Star break in 2015, Jimenez was 7-4 with a 2.81 ERA over 99 1/3 innings, striking out 8.88 and walking just 2.9 batters per nine innings over that period of time. Even after falling off in the second half, you could still make a reasonable argument that Jimenez was the best Orioles starting pitcher not named Wei-Yin Chen last season.

Jimenez was guaranteed the No.2 starting pitcher role in 2014 and he didn't do well. He then had to fight for and win the fifth rotation spot in 2015, and he rewarded the O's with a masterful first 17 starts. He had a guaranteed rotation spot again this season, and he lost it. It'll be interesting to see if Jimenez can keep responding well with his back up against the wall once again.

He has always shown the stuff to miss bats, but that would include hitters just not swinging. A huge factor in Jimenez's struggles this season - much like his 2014 season - has been his abysmal walk rate. Leading up to his start against the Nationals, Jimenez was striking out 8.27 and walking 5.61 batters per nine innings. Since his last two impressive starts, both his strikeouts and walks per nine innings have lowered to 7.88 and 5.11, respectively. We can reasonably assume he is focused on pitching to contact and having his defense help him out, and that has been a successful game plan over his last couple of outings. He has taken away his reliance on striking batters out in order to also lower his walk rate.

Jimenez is scheduled to make his next start on Monday in Tampa Bay. If he has another good outing, even if Tillman is ready to be reinstated off the disabled list, the Orioles can't take Jimenez out of the rotation. Especially at this point in the season, it does not matter whose name is on the back of the jersey. If you're pitching well, you should be getting as many opportunities to continue to pitch well. If Jimenez can stay hot when the club makes its trip to Florida, he may be in position to take someone else's rotation spot. And it's worth noting that the pitcher who is arguably struggling the most in this rotation is on the mound tonight against the Blue Jays. It'll be interesting to see if he, among one or two others, is auditioning to keep his role.

Dillon Atkinson blogs about the Orioles for Orioles Uncensored. Follow him on Twitter: @DAtkinsonOU. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.