Miguel Gonzalez with gem as O's beat Chris Archer, Rays 4-0

Chris Archer began Saturday night with a streak of four straight starts and 26 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run. The Orioles had a streak of 25 consecutive innings without scoring at Tropicana Field.

Both streaks ended in the third inning tonight. And Miguel Gonzalez was pretty darn good also.

Gonzalez went 7 2/3 scoreless innings, and the Orioles beat Archer and the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0 to even this three-game series at a win each.

Gonzalez gave up just four hits, with one walk and six strikeouts. He threw 105 pitches, 70 for strikes, and improved to 3-1 with an ERA of 2.59. Gonzalez recorded four three-up, three-down innings, and Tampa Bay went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position against him.

After recording just four quality starts over the season's first 17 games, the O's rotation has now put together a run of five straight quality starts, pitching to an ERA of 1.73 in that stretch. The O's have three consecutive starts of seven innings or more for the first time since last Sept. 12-14.

This is their first shutout of the year and first since Sept. 28, 2014 at Toronto. Brad Brach got the last four outs to record his first save as an Oriole.

With one out in the O's third, Manny Machado walked and Jimmy Paredes singled. Adam Jones flied out to deep center as Machado reached third. Then Chris Davis came through with a groundball single to left to beat the shift and provide a 1-0 lead with his 17th RBI, his 10th in the last six games. Steve Pearce followed with a booming two-run double to right-center for a 3-0 lead, but he was thrown out trying for third base.

In 18 career games at the ballpark closest to his Lakeland, Fla. home, Pearce is 17-for-55 (.309), with four doubles, five homers and 11 RBIs.

In the sixth, Caleb Joseph hit a 3-2 slider from Archer for a 4-0 lead with his second homer of 2015.

Archer allowed six hits and four runs over six innings to fall to to 3-3 with an ERA of 1.64. He has two losses and an ERA of 5.40 against the Orioles while he has a 0.00 ERA of in 26 2/3 innings in his other four starts.

The Orioles improved to 11-11 with their fourth win in the last five games. Tampa Bay, now 13-11, lost for the third time in the last 10 games. The O's take a 3-2 lead in the season series with this win and lead 151-150 in the all-time series against Tampa Bay.

In Sunday's series finale at 1:35 p.m., Wei-Yin Chen (0-1, 2.78 ERA) faces right-hander Nathan Karns (1-1, 4.76 ERA).