O's get walk-off win on Trumbo's home run

On a night they failed repeatedly with runners in scoring position, the Orioles got an important win thanks to two team strengths - power and their bullpen.

Mark Trumbo led off the last of the 12th with a solo homer to left to give the Orioles a 3-2, walk-off win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Orioles (83-71) needed to win as the two teams ahead of them in the wild card race had posted wins also. They stay a 1/2-game behind Detroit for the second wild card and 1 1/2 games back of Toronto for the first wild-card spot.

Trumbo hit his 44th homer on a 1-2 pitch from Arizona's Matt Koch. It was the Orioles' third solo homer of the night. They trailed 2-0 in the eighth, but Pedro Alvarez homered that inning to make it 2-1. Matt Wieters' homer leading off in the ninth tied it 2-2.

After starter Yovani Gallardo gave up two runs over the first six innings, the Orioles' bullpen combined to post six scoreless innings from six different pitchers. The last was Oliver Drake, who pitched the 12th to pick up his first major league win.

The Orioles went 1-for-9 tonight with runners in scoring position and left 14 men on base, but in the end they had one more run than Arizona to pick up one important win.

Tonight's game blog: After getting swept four in a row by the Red Sox, the Orioles welcome the Diamondbacks to Baltimore tonight to begin a three-game interleague series.

The Orioles (82-71) are 2-6 on an 11-game homestand and they are 47-31 at home on the season. But the Orioles have a record of just 8-14 in their last three homestands since mid-August, going 3-5 on one stand, 3-3 on another and 2-6 on this current run of home games.

In the wild card race, the Orioles begin play tonight 1 1/2 games behind Toronto for the first wild card berth and a 1/2 game behind Detroit for the second one. The Orioles are one game ahead of Houston in the wild-card chase and 1 ½ games ahead of Seattle. There are six teams separated by four games in the wild card battle.

Arizona is 64-88 and has won four of six games. But since Sept. 5, the Diamondbacks are 6-10. They are 4-9 versus the American League East, going 2-1 against New York, 1-2 versus Tampa Bay, 1-3 against Toronto and 0-3 versus Boston.

Arizona, which is 34-40 in road games and 26-36 in the second half, features the youngest team in the majors with an average age of 26.3. Arizona is 12-3 all-time against the Orioles. They have not played at Camden Yards since they swept a three-game series June 15-17, 2007.

The Orioles have not gotten a single quality start from a starting pitcher on this homestand. The starters have an ERA of 6.10 over the eight games and have produced just one quality start the last 11 games. During about that same stretch, the O's bullpen has an ERA of 0.94 the last 10 games.

The Orioles starter tonight is right-hander Yovani Gallardo (5-8, 5.77 ERA). He is making his 22nd start of the year, but just his second since Sept. 7. His last start was Sept. 15 against Tampa Bay. Pitching on eight days rest, he allowed seven hits and six runs over 3 1/3 innings. Tonight's start comes on seven days rest.

Gallardo has gone 1-0 with 4.86 ERA in three interleague starts this season. He last faced a National League opponent on July 25 versus Colorado. Gallardo is 9-10 with a 3.72 ERA in 27 career interleague starts with 15 quality starts.

In his career against Arizona, he is 7-2 with a 2.32 ERA and eight quality starts in 12 career outings. He last faced the D-backs on July 7, 2015 with Texas. Over 5 2/3 innings, he allowed eight hits and three earned runs.

Right-hander Shelby Miller (2-12, 6.90 ERA) makes his 19th start of the season for Arizona. He has a WHIP of 1.744 and just three quality starts. Miller allows 11.9 hits per nine innings and yields a .322 batting average to opponent hitters.

An All-Star in 2015, Miller is 0-6 with an ERA of 7.65 over his past seven starts. The Diamondbacks are 5-13 in his 18 starts this year.