The Orioles dispensed with the late-inning drama tonight. No comebacks, no walk-offs, just an early lead that steadily grew.
Sort of like the legend of Trey Mancini. And Wade Miley's approval rating.
Mancini homered for the third time in three major league starts, Miley came within an out of his second complete-game shutout of the season and the Orioles defeated the Diamondbacks 6-1 before 40,610 at Camden Yards to move back into the second wild card spot.
The Orioles (84-71) will go for the sweep on Sunday with Dylan Bundy opposing rookie Braden Shipley.
Miley tossed four scoreless innings in his last start before spasms in his upper back ruined his afternoon. He blanked the Diamondbacks tonight over 8 2/3 innings before Brendon Drury's RBI double ended his night at 116 pitches.
Miley allowed one run and seven hits, walked none and struck out a career-high 11 batters. Some fans booed when manager Buck Showalter came out of the dugout to summon Tyler Wilson.
Miley ended the seventh inning with his 10th strikeout to match his season high. It was the fourth time in his career that he fanned at least 10, most recently on July 1, 2014 versus the Pirates. No. 11 came against Jean Segura with one out in the eighth. He also struck out 11 on May 27, 2014 against the Padres.
Miguel Gonzalez was the last Orioles starter with a complete-game shutout on Sept. 3, 2014. He also was the last Oriole with a complete game until Ubaldo Jimenez on Sept. 5 at Tropicana Field.
Miley came close. The Orioles settled for their franchise-record 13th interleague win.
Miley also shut out the Royals on April 30 while pitching for the Mariners.
Paul Goldschmidt led off the ninth with a single and scored on the Drury double. Miley left to a standing ovation.
Mancini struck out looking with the bases loaded in his first at-bat tonight, but he launched a Robbie Ray pitch 434 feet to left-center field leading off the fourth. His mother, Beth, may be required to purchase season tickets next season.
Mancini gave the Orioles a 3-0 lead, and Chris Davis tacked on two more runs with a two-out, two-strike single up the middle with the bases loaded.
The Orioles scored more than three runs for the first time in eight games.
According to STATS, Mancini is only the third player in major league history to hit a home run in his first three starts. Arizona's Carlos Quentin did it in 2006 and the Rockies' Trevor Story did it this year. Story homered in his first four starts.
Mark Trumbo led off the fifth inning with his 45th home run and fourth in nine games to increase the lead to 6-0. He connected off reliever Silvino Bracho.
The Orioles loaded the bases against Dominic Leone with no outs in the seventh, but Jonathan Schoop struck out and Matt Wieters grounded into a double play. Fans would have gone ballistic except for the 6-0 lead and the way Miley was cruising along.
Ray allowed the first four batters to reach in the first inning. Adam Jones walked, Davis singled, Manny Machado delivered an RBI single and Trumbo walked to load the bases with no outs. A huge opportunity fizzled, however, when Mancini struck out and Schoop bounced into a 1-2-3 double play.
Schoop was batting .219/.244/.385 in the second half going into tonight's game, his on-base percentage the lowest in the majors. He went 0-for-4, reaching on an error.
Jones worked his 37th walk to exceed his career high of 36 set in 2009. There was no in-game ceremony.
No. 38 was given to him intentionally in the fourth to load the bases for Davis, the last batter Ray faced tonight.
Wieters led off the second inning with a double into right-center field and continued to third base on Yasmany Tomas' error. J.J. Hardy followed with a liner to left field and Wieters scored standing up for a 2-0 lead.
Miley allowed 24 runs in the first inning this season for a 7.71 ERA and opponents were batting .330 against him. He stranded two runners tonight after back-to-back two-out singles by Goldschmidt and Welington Castillo.
Miley retired 12 in a row after the Castillo single. Mitch Haniger and Phil Gosselin reached on infield hits with two outs in the fifth, but Miley struck out Segura on his 70th pitch.
Here's Showalter:
On what's clicked with Miley: "He's had real good command, and he had a good slider tonight. Real sharp, late. You see nine right-handed hitters out there, you're going have to be able to do some things other than just spot a fastball. He had a lot of things at his disposal that he could use at any point in the count. Couple that with Matt and that gives you a real good chance."
On Miley working fast: "Players like to play behind him. I know there are about five relievers tonight that are real happy with him. I had about three guys I wasn't going to use tonight, so that was big for us. He dialed up something we really needed."
On taking out Miley: "I did leave him in, I did give him a chance. I think that's the most pitches he's thrown this year. But he had a good chance. Was pitching well and you're keeping in mind what he's coming off of. We gave him a really good chance and he gave himself a chance. Tyler needed ... Just felt like it got to the point of diminishing returns."
On taking in the moment as fans cheered Miley: "Yeah, they certainly weren't cheering me. I was thinking about flipping it to Tyler about halfway across the outfield and walk off with him. I didn't think I had enough arm to reach Tyler. No, that's exactly right.
"I've told you all the story about David Cone. Fans are always waiting to embrace you. You have that ability. I think about everything going on in Wade's life right now. He's probably getting ready to head to Louisiana for his first child. We'll see how that goes. But it's a nice way to end ... we hope it's not his season, for sure.
"That was a nice moment for him. That was another reason about taking him out. That was the lesser of about six or seven."
On saving the bullpen: "It was real important. We got to the point where three guys, maybe four, three for sure we were not going to push the envelope on tonight. Not that one day's going to make that much difference, but with the day game tomorrow, if we had to push the envelope on them, we'd really be short tomorrow."
On Mancini: "Lot of ground to cover. I know one thing, he's glad to get out of that ballpark in Norfolk in more ways than one. It's been a real tough place for home runs. Sure, he's excited about that."
On reclaiming the second wild card: "I wouldn't be paying attention to it at all. It'd just be taking care of our game unless somebody keeps bringing it up and mentioning it. So you know what? Thanks. I know it's cliche-ish and I feel like I'm challenged to come up with more, but that's what it is. You take your nine innings and try to win. See where your - I don't want to get deep with it - destiny of the season takes you.
"I try to lean more on, our guys lean on, all the things we've done to have this opportunity to be doing this. There's a lot of people in this world that would love to do it. We've got seven games left? We'll see. It's there for us."
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