Mychal Givens on his big outing in Boston last night

TORONTO - Orioles right-hander Mychal Givens is aware that his fastball velocity was down somewhat in the game last night in Boston. He concedes it was a cold night and his stuff might not have been at its best. At the same time, he also got some huge outs and kept the Red Sox from mounting an amazing comeback from nine runs down.

According to Brooksbaseball.net, Givens' four-seam velocity last night was 91.79 mph, down from earlier outings this year when it was in the 94-95 mph range.

"Being around Millsy (bullpen coach Alan Mills, he has said), sometimes you are not going to have your best stuff," Givens said this afternoon of his outing. "Going in there and pitching down in the zone, knowing how to pitch in and out, and changing eye levels and changing speeds is a big part. It was a pretty cold day. Just went in to minimize the damage and attack hitters."

He sure did that, pitching two scoreless innings on 30 pitches over parts of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Once down 9-0, Boston had rallied to within 9-4 when Givens replaced Ubaldo Jiménez with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth. He allowed an inherited run to score on a Xander Bogaerts RBI single. But Givens then struck out Pablo Sandoval and Chris Young flied out. Boston left the bases loaded. He would pitch another 1 1/3 innings, restoring some order to a game that was going the wrong way for Jiménez, who had been staked to a 9-0 lead but could not even get through the fifth.

"Tried to take it one pitch at a time," Givens said of his fifth-inning escape. "Try to get the first guy out and then move to the next one. Don't try to do too much and be a superhero and try to blow guys away."

Givens could not let himself mentally lose focus early last night in the bullpen when the Orioles were coasting 9-0. He was ready anytime if needed and not expecting an easy night.

"I expect with any situation whatever happens," he said. "The Red Sox have a really good lineup. So they were chipping away. Just tried to limit the damage. It was good to be able to go the innings that helped our bullpen to be on (and rested) for the next series.

"Yeah, definitely (we got momentum back there). I have always felt the talent of our bullpen, we can do that, bring the momentum back on our side. Let our offense do what they do best."

After a strong 2015 season, Givens is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in four appearances after getting the win Wednesday night. Over 5 2/3 innings, he has allowed six hits and one run with one walk and five strikeouts. Lefty batters are 1-for-5 (.200) against him and right-handed batters are 5-for-18 (.278).

Givens spent some time with Mills over the winter, planning and preparing for this season with his former pitching coach with Double-A Bowie and current coach here for the O's bullpen crew.

"Just wanted to make sure going in that I am throwing my changeup a lot more and have a good feel like in '15," Givens said. "I worked on it a lot in spring and in the offseason. Since Millsy is a Florida guy, we threw together this winter. Worked on pounding the zone and making my fastball command a little better."