PITTSBURGH - Miguel Gonzalez registered the Orioles' 16th quality start last night. He's now tied with Chris Tillman for the team lead with four.
Did anyone notice?
Chris Davis hit three home runs, the offense cranked out nine runs and the rest of the night is a blur.
Gonzalez allowed two runs in six-plus innings. He struck out seven and didn't walk a batter.
"I thought I felt a little over-strong, but we got it done," said Gonzalez, who hadn't started since May 10. "I'm where I want to be now and especially against a team like this. They're going to come out hacking. It was fun to be out there and be able to pitch in and out. My secondary pitches were going good."
Gonzalez said he's been working with pitching coach Dave Wallace and bullpen coach Dom Chiti "to try to stay close with all my pitches. It's been working."
In other words, stay compact in his delivery.
"Exactly, and then explode at the end," he said. "Pitch in more. And I thought that's what I did more and it helped me."
Davis is the 20th Oriole to hit three home runs in the same game. He's the first Oriole to do it in an interleague game and the 19th player overall, according to @MLBStatoftheDay.
Davis home runs traveled 403, 421 and 398 feet.
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle served as Davis' hitting coach with the Rangers in 2010. So much for using it to his advantage.
"I was a lot different hitter then," Davis said. "I know Clint really well. I'm still really close with him and I think he's going to do everything he can to scout me now. I'm just a completely different hitter. I was really searching for it back when he was the hitting coach. He had a chance to see me a little bit in 2012, but other than that, I think he's going to look at me now and see what I'm doing."
Check out these nuggets from Orioles PR:
* Davis collected his second career three-home run game, the 13th time an Oriole accomplished the feat on the road and the first since Cal Ripken Jr. on May 28, 1996 in Seattle.
* Davis joins Boog Powell and Eddie Murray (three times each) as the only players in club history with multiple three-homer games. Fifteen different Orioles have now recorded a total of 20 three-homer games in club history.
* Davis became the 12th active player with multiple three-homer games, joining Albert Pujols, Aramis Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez (four each); Alfonso Soriano and Mark Teixeira (three each); and Ryan Braun, Miguel Cabrera, Jonny Gomes, Carlos Gonzalez, Evan Longoria and Joey Votto (two each).
* Davis recorded the 19th three-homer game in interleague play. The last one was the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman on May 29, 2013 against the Orioles.
Manny Machado made two spectacular plays last night, avoiding the tag at home on Adam Jones' double after the ball arrived ahead of him, and making a diving stop of Josh Harrison's grounder and throwing to second from one knee to start a double play.
Machado reached on an infield hit in the fifth inning before scoring on Jones' double.
Asked again before the game about Machado's progress from October knee surgery, manager Buck Showalter replied, "He's doing fine. He's not thinking about it every step. It's a lot of little things. The first time he hit first base at Tampa. We talked about it the next day. That was kind of, get through the memory bank and get that out of the way.
"He had almost a historic year at third base last year, just like Chris did at first base. We probably won a couple games at third base because of his play at third base defensively and we're glad to have him back. He'll figure it out offensively. He had a good game the last one and he's worth waiting on."
Showalter has watched his pitchers take batting practice. He may want to cover his eyes.
"I've seen some of the swings," he said. "We had one guy who swung 14 times the other day before he made contact. I X'd that hit-and-run off the list. Fourteen. That's hard to do. That's hard to do with a moving target and not make contact with it one time. But the 15th one was very special."
Triple-A Norfolk infielder Ivan De Jesus has reached base safely in 27 straight games.
Tides outfielder Francisco Peguero is 14-for-44 (.318) in 10 games on his rehab assignment. He was placed on the disabled list on March 21 with right wrist inflammation.
Peguero is out of minor league options, so the Orioles must decide what to do with him once the rehab assignment is completed.
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