McFarland, Joseph and Cruz comment after the O's beat Texas

Tonight was T.J McFarland's second career start, but unlike the first outing, he left with a win this time. McFarland pitched a career-high five innings, allowing seven hits and two runs as the Orioles beat Texas 8-3. He said yesterday he would have some nerves out there, and he did. "I'm always going to be a little nervous before. ... I mean even when the phone rings in the bullpen, I get, you know, a little stomach dropping," McFarland said. "But it's all good emotions that I should be feeling. I was just excited for today. "I felt good. Threw a lot of strikes and just basically let the defense help me out. Got a lot of ground balls, lot of double plays. Can't stress enough that the defense really picked me up." When he allowed two runs in the second inning, it snapped a 9 1/3-inning scoreless streak for him. They were the first runs he allowed since June 8. He had been pitching well out of the bullpen, which carried over tonight. "No, nothing really changed," he said. "My mindset was still going out there, throwing strikes and doing exactly what I had been doing." When asked if he could have pitched longer, he replied with, "Who knows?" "I went five and the bullpen picked me up after that," he said. "And we won, so that's really all that matters. I felt good, felt strong." Caleb Joseph had some praise for McFarland. "He did a great job. He came out and threw quality strikes early and mixed the slider in," Joseph said. "Did a really good job with the changeup. Had 70-some pitches for five innings. That is about as good as you can get for kind of a spot start. We needed him today and he did an amazing job." It didn't hurt that the Orioles backed him with eight runs in the first four innings tonight after scoring six in the first four last night. "We saw how that worked last night with Ubaldo (Jimenez)," Joseph said. "Giving these pitchers more of a cushion early on so they can attack the zone a little bit more. That is ideal but won't happen every night. He did his job and we did ours. What a team effort tonight. Everyone on the diamond did a great job of impacting the game somehow." Joseph contributed with his third homer tonight, also adding a career-high three RBIs. "From one through nine, we have home run potential," he said. "We just need to try and backspin balls. I don't think anyone here is trying to hit home runs. With the confines and weather and we've got a bunch of big, strong guys on this team. We'll try to keep barreling up balls and hope they keep flying out." Nelson Cruz hit a solo homer in the first inning tonight for his 26th home run. It also came on his 34th birthday, and he is now 7-for-19 with two homers in five games on his birthday. "Homer and victory. That was a nice day to start and nice day to end. I like to celebrate with a homer," Cruz said with a laugh. The Orioles offense has scored 22 runs the last three games. "It's amazing. (Steve) Pearce has been unbelievable. Seems every time we need a big hit, he's there to deliver it," Cruz said. "Everything was good, pitching, defense and offense." Cruz was asked if the ball is carrying better now at Camden Yards. The Orioles have hit seven homers in this series and have five straight multi-homer games, one shy of their season high. The O's have homered in 11 consecutive games. "I think so. Also, we have to square the balls up to go out," he said. "It's both. We're hitting good and the balls are carrying." And Cruz is carrying on his strong season. He's now batting .280 with 26 homers and 67 RBIs. "Just like I've said before, try to focus on a daily basis. Just stayed focused on what we have right now. Been a blessing," he said. "I'm happy but the situation where we are as a team is more important. The focus is winning games." Orioles' most homers by the All-Star break: 37 - Chris Davis (2013) 30 - Brady Anderson (1996) 26 - Nelson Cruz (2014) and Rafael Palmeiro (1998)