Notes on the Orioles' rotation improvement and more

The Orioles' starting rotation has kind of quietly been on a pretty solid run of games lately. The O's starters have recorded seven quality starts over the last nine games, pitching to an ERA of 2.95 in that stretch.

After right-hander Kevin Gausman's eight scoreless innings last night, O's starters pitched to an ERA of 1.29 in the Yankees series. Over 21 innings, the rotation allowed 12 hits with seven walks and 17 strikeouts. They produced three consecutive quality starts for the first time this year.

If you take Gausman's three starts this season, Chris Tillman's last three starts and the last start each for Tyler Wilson and Mike Wright, you get an ERA of 1.78 with 10 earned runs over 50 2/3 innings and seven quality starts in eight outings. A nice run, indeed.

It kind of puts a little heat on tonight's starter Ubaldo Jimenez to not be the weak link. Ubaldo is 1-3 with a 5.20 ERA this season and allowed six runs in 4 2/3 innings in his last start against the White Sox. Tonight he looks to join the fun and pitch well also.

But as for the rotation overall, clearly some things are coming together as O's starters have now gone six innings or more 12 times in the last 18 games. Sure, you want more than six when you can get it, but at times early this year, getting even six from a starter was a problem.

Hyun Soo Kim got the winning rally started in the 10th on Thursday night with an infield single. He raced to third on Jonathan Schoop's single. Nolan Reimold then pinch-ran for him and scored the game-winning run on a Pedro Alvarez sac fly. The Orioles beat the Yankees 1-0 in 10 innings. It was their first 1-0 win over the Yankees since Sept. 25, 1981 at New York.

Kim, who went 1-for-3 with a walk, talked about his leadoff single in the 10th and being part of a walk-off win celebration.

"All I thought about is to get on base however I could," Kim said through his translater Danny Lee. "Anything I could do to make that happen. I've been trying to stay as positive as possible and as aggressive at the plate as possible. Just want to make a good contribution to the team.

"I felt fantastic about the walk-off win. I am definitely excited as well as the other players here."

The Orioles are now 9-5 in games against the American League East, winning four of five series. They have a winning record versus every team in the division, going 3-2 against Tampa Bay and 2-1 against New York, Boston and Toronto. They are 6-2 in home games within the division.

Alvarez talked about playing AL East games. Are they pretty intense?

"You get that sense just being around baseball," Alvarez said. "I got that sense when I was in Pittsburgh. A lot of times you are flying across the country and you see an AL East game on Sunday night baseball and you see the caliber of games that are played. That is kind of a known thing around baseball and to be able to live it and experience it is a treat."

The Orioles are 4-3 on this 10-game homestand that concludes now with a weekend series against the 13-16 Oakland A's.

The Orioles will look to get their bats going again in this series. Over the last four games, the Orioles have scored six runs total and have gone 2-for-27 (.074) with runners in scoring position.

The Orioles begin the weekend trailing Boston by 1/2 game for first place in the East. The Red Sox (17-11), winners of nine of their last 11, play three games in Yankee Stadium this weekend.

Keys win again: Single-A Frederick has now won a season-high five in a row. Frederick beat Potomac 5-2 last night. The Keys took advantage of a couple of Potomac errors to score three runs in the ninth and snap a 2-2 tie.

On the mound, starter John Means had another solid outing. He went six innings, allowing five hits and two runs and fanned a career-high 10 batters. Means is 3-0 with an ERA of 2.32 on the year and has allowed two runs or less in each of his six starts. In 31 innings the 11th-round pick in 2014 has walked seven and fanned 31.

Lefty Tanner Scott pitched two scoreless innings on just 11 total pitches to get his first Carolina League win. Since he gave up seven runs in a game on April 27, Scott has pitched four scoreless innings his past two outings.