Kevin Gausman throws seven scoreless as O's top Tribe 5-2

If the Orioles' starting pitchers are pushing to elevate their game in the season's second half, tonight's game was another significant step.

Right-hander Kevin Gausman delivered his third scoreless outing of the season, pitching seven strong innings as the Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians 5-2 in front of 31,946 at Camden Yards.

Gausman allowed four hits with three walks and seven strikeouts, throwing a career-high 116 pitches. He picked up just his second win to go to 2-7 with an ERA of 3.77. He has allowed two runs in 13 2/3 innings over his last two starts. He pitched out of a jam in the first, got double play balls in the fourth, fifth and sixth, and retired the side in order in the seventh.

It was a big outing against the American League Central leaders, who came to Baltimore last night with a record of 30-14 since June 1. Over the last two nights, O's first-round picks Dylan Bundy and Gausman have not allowed an earned run over 12 innings against the Tribe.

Tonight, Cleveland avoided the shutout on Lonnie Chisenhall's two-out, two-run double in the ninth off Brad Brach. Zach Britton got the last out to record his 32nd save. With the save, Britton ties Willie Hernandez of the 1984 Tigers for most consecutive saves to start a season by a left-hander in major league history.

O's starting pitching has recently been trending up. Since Chris Tillman's strong outing Thursday in New York, O's starters have allowed one earned run over 19 innings. The past 11 games, the O's rotation ERA is 2.94. This was the O's 19th outing of the year of seven or more innings. Tillman leads the club with nine and Gausman is now second with three.

For the second night in a row, the Orioles took a 3-0 first inning lead on the Indians. For the second night in a row, a Mark Trumbo homer was part of the rally.

An Adam Jones bloop single started the home first. He went to third on Manny Machado's single and scored to make it 1-0 on a Chris Davis groundout, his 59th RBI. Trumbo followed with a two-run homer to left-center for a 3-0 lead. Trumbo hit No. 30 on a 1-1 fastball. He is four homers shy of his career high of 34 in 2013.

Trumbo, who had gone eight games without a homer or RBI, now has two homers and five RBIs in this series. He had not homered in the first inning all year until Friday night and now has done that in back-to-back games.

Pedro Alvarez crushed a homer an estimated 449 feet to lead off the seventh for a 4-0 lead. It was No. 12 for Alvarez and came on a 1-0 pitch. J.J. Hardy followed with a single for his second hit and later scored on Jonathan Schoop's infield hit for the 5-0 edge.

The Orioles improved 56-40 with their third straight win and ninth in the last 14 games. They are 4-1 against Cleveland and 35-14 at home. The Orioles have won nine of 10 and 18 of their last 22 games at Camden Yards.

Baltimore goes for the three-game sweep here Sunday afternoon as Vance Worley (2-1, 3.16 ERA) pitches against Corey Kluber (9-8, 3.42 ERA).