Gausman's pitching and the longball lead O's to win in series finale

It hasn't been often this year when an Orioles starting pitcher got an early lead to work with. Right-hander Kevin Gausman got one today and made it stand up with help from the bullpen. Gausman's ERA continued to tumble as the Orioles beat Detroit 5-3 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles took two of three from the Tigers, improving to 8-20. They won a series for just the second time in nine tries and won their first home series after losing four in a row to start 2018. It was just their third win in the last 15 games.

Gausman allowed just one run and five hits over 5 2/3 innings and reliever Brad Brach made sure his final line looked solid. Brach came on with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth with Gausman at 106 pitches and holding a 3-1 lead. Brach struck out catcher John Hicks, who had hit a solo homer an inning earlier, to end the threat. He got Hicks to chase a 94 mph fastball off the outside corner.

Gausman is now 2-2 with a 4.15 ERA. His fastball averaged 93 mph, topping out at 96 mph, and he went to it early and often today. Over his last four starts, Gausman has allowed eight earned runs in 25 2/3 innings for an ERA of 2.81.

Gausman's ERA has been trending down since his first start of 2018. It began at 13.50 after his first game and then went to 8.00, 6.60, 5.57, 4.66 and 4.15 after this outing today.

The first inning has been an adventure at times this year for the Orioles. They were outscored 29-8 in the first inning through their first 27 games. But today they took a 1-0 lead when Trey Mancini led off the home half with his third home run. Mancini hit a 2-0 fastball from lefty Daniel Norris over the center field fence for his first career leadoff homer and the Orioles' first of 2018.

The lead grew to 3-0 an inning later. Joey Rickard led off with a single and Pedro Álvarez blasted an 87 mph fastball for a two-run homer to center. Álvarez had hit two homers in Friday's series-opening win. This was his fifth of the year and was 114 mph off the bat and traveled 432 feet. Yes, it was some blast.

Álvarez was a late addition to the lineup and played at third base. Danny Valencia was scratched shortly before game time today.

Detroit pulled within 3-1 on Hicks' homer in the fifth and the Orioles got that run back when Anthony Santander singled in the sixth and later scored on Craig Gentry's single. But the inning after Brach escaped the bases-loaded jam, he allowed two runs in the seventh on RBI doubles by Jeimer Candelario and Nike Goodrum to make it a 4-3 O's lead.

Mychal Givens pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and then Álvarez homered again to provide an insurance run and 5-3 lead. He hit one just over the scoreboard in right for his sixth homer. He has two mulit-homer games this year - both in this series - and 15 for his career. Darren O'Day pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for his second save.

The Orioles are off Monday and they begin a two-city West Coast road trip Tuesday night versus the Angels in Anaheim.