Orioles come up short in latest Tigers tale (with quotes)

DETROIT - The warning signs were there, as plainly in view as the huge tigers perched atop the scoreboard in left field. Except only the tigers are fake.

Ubaldo Jiménez ran the count full tonight to three of the first four batters, issued two walks and threw 28 pitches in a scoreless first inning. He needed another 20 to complete the second inning while allowing two runs and losing an early lead, and 20 more in the third while stranding a pair of runners.

This is the bad Jiménez who shows up at your door, pushes his way past the human barricade and spills something on your carpet. There's going to be a mess, but maybe he can clean it up.

Jiménez lasted only five innings, the bullpen again forced into action in the middle of a game, and the Orioles lost to the Tigers 5-4 at Comerica Park.

The Orioles are 23-15 overall and 1-5 on a road trip that concludes Thursday afternoon. Their last five losses have been by one run.

Tyler Collins was in an 0-for-30 slump before hitting two home runs off Jiménez, the latter a three-run shot in the fifth that gave Detroit a 5-4 lead. Manager Buck Showalter called upon Stefan Crichton to start the sixth with Jiménez at 95 pitches and charged with five runs and eight hits, with three walks, five strikeouts and a hit batter.

Wade Miley has gone five innings in his last two starts. Chris Tillman went 4 1/3 and Kevin Gausman went 3 1/3 in their most recent outings, and Jiménez didn't make it into the sixth tonight.

It starts with the starters.

Twelve of the 26 batters reached against Jiménez, who's carrying a 6.52 ERA in 38 2/3 innings. The rotation logged 199 innings before tonight, ranking 26th in the majors and 14th in the American League.

Five more wasn't going to make much of a difference.

The first three batters reached on a single and two walks, but Welington Castillo threw out Ian Kinsler trying to steal.

Richard Bleier, the only left-hander remaining in the bullpen, threw seven pitches to stack on top of 22 from last night when he earned his first major league win. He went two innings Sunday in Kansas City and took the loss.

Is another roster move pending, this time delivering a fresh left-hander? Jayson Aquino hasn't pitched since Saturday with Triple-A Norfolk, making him a candidate if there's a change.

The Orioles scored twice in the fourth inning to take a 3-2 lead, the rally sparked by José Iglesias' throwing error. Mark Trumbo eventually scored on Castillo's second hit after Jonathan Schoop doubled, and Trey Mancini followed with a sacrifice fly.

Chris Davis and Trumbo doubled with two outs in the fifth to increase the lead to 4-2, a nice reward for Jiménez after his eight-pitch shutdown inning in the fourth. Too bad for the Orioles that Jiménez's roll was so brief. Sort of like the kind that only gets you to the other side of the mattress.

The Orioles strung together one-out singles by Schoop, Castillo and Mancini in the second inning, and J.J. Hardy's fielder's choice bouncer provided a 1-0 lead. But Collins homered in the second to tie the score Kinsler's RBI single later in the inning gave Detroit a 2-1 lead.

Jiménez drilled Nick Castellanos with the next pitch. Some fans voiced their displeasure, but a pitcher with control issues usually gets a free pass. Or dispenses them.

The leash on Jiménez was getting shorter as his pitch count rose to 68 through the third inning. Miguel Castro had his jacket off and paced in the bullpen while holding a baseball. It didn't constitute warming up, but he was on alert.

Castro warmed again in the seventh as Bleier stranded an inherited runner, and his Orioles debut came in the eighth after Collins' leadoff double.

Collins moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, but Castro won a 12-pitch battle with Iglesias, striking him out on a nasty 83 mph slider after routinely pumping his fastball at 96, and Kinsler grounded out on the 10th pitch of his at-bat.

Tigers left-hander Justin Wilson didn't blow the save tonight after Mancini led off with a 10-pitch infield single and Joey Rickard drew a one-out walk. Manny Machado struck out to strand runners on the corners, slamming his helmet to the ground after first base umpire CB Bucknor ruled that the third baseman didn't check his swing.

A game ended in regulation and under five hours.

But not how the Orioles wanted it.

Jiménez on his frustration: "It's tough. I mean, as the starting pitcher you want to try to go deep in the game. But I couldn't."

Jiménez on whether it's more frustrating because of last night: "Yeah, it is. But I was trying to go with everything I had. I threw 90-something pitches. I wish I could go another inning, but I didn't."

Jiménez on Collins home runs: "Both of the pitches he hit were split-fingers. They were just hanging there."

Jiménez on whether he felt some momentum after the fourth: "Yeah, in the fourth inning I was able to get back on track. In the first couple innings it was tough to find a good rhythm."

Jiménez on Tigers lineup: "They have a pretty good lineup. There's no doubt about it. You have to execute pitches and I was able to do that against the other hitters, but Collins made me pay for those hanging splits."

Jiménez on whether rotation struggles snowball: "You don't want to get there but it's just part of the game. I mean, as a pitcher you want to be the stopper and try to begin a new streak, but I guess it happens sometimes."

Jiménez on Collins: "The frustration is I left two hanging pitches. It doesn't matter who hit them. I made two bad pitches and he had a good night. I mean, it's one of those things where it doesn't matter what kind of numbers you have. That's baseball. If you're going to have a good night, that's the way it is."

Showalter on Jiménez: "Just command. You see a lot of counts out of his favor, and when he did get ahead, he made some mistakes. He got behind the center fielder and gave up a long home run, then got ahead and threw a pitch in the middle of the plate. It was an off-speed pitch. But there's a lot more to the game than that. He's not the only one. We're having a lot of trouble getting through that fifth inning.

"Quite frankly, it seems like it's that way in all of baseball, all around the league. Getting to the seventh inning is at an all-time low in Major League Baseball history right now. It's tough. He's capable of better."

Showalter on whether it's harder to manage the bullpen with starters struggling: "Managing it from Norfolk and Bowie, too. We had to use a lot of guys to win the game last night, as did Brad (Ausmus). The difference was they had a guy (Michael Fulmer) who went seven innings. You can see why he's so good. He figured out a way to get through seven innings. Really some of his best stuff of the night was in that seventh inning. Really shortened the game for them.

"But I was proud of Crichton and Miguel Castro and Rocky - I call him Rocky - got up and gave us one there. We made a lot of mistakes on the center fielder tonight, that's for sure. Tried to go down and away and we went middle-middle."

Showalter on Castro: "I've seen him before. He's pitched against us. As advertised. Our guys were very accurate about their description. I liked his composure in that situation. Better than the composure on the last call of the game."

Showalter on whether Machado checked his swing: "I just looked at it he didn't go. It's one of those things, kind of emotional with the crowd and everything and (Bucknor) kind of gave in."

Castillo on Jiménez: "We were using a lot of fastball. Early in the game, a lot of off-speed, and it looked like there wasn't the off-speed. Anything off-speed that he'd throw, they were on it. We tried to change that and then attack more with the fastball in and out. I think that's why he got through five innings or whatever he threw.

"Just a couple mistakes. Two hanging changeups to Collins, and the split, too. I think that cost the game."

Castillo on trying to get starters to go deeper: "Every time I've got a pitcher on the mound, I just try to get as long as I can in the game. The starters haven't gone that long in the game. That's why we've been using the 'pen too much. I just try to attack the hitter with the fastball, get early outs, and get my starting pitcher longer in the game."

Castillo on having six hits in two games since coming off DL: "Honestly, I feel great. I got the one game catching behind the plate in Double-A and I just feel like it's the same game. I just go out there, have fun, see the ball and hit the ball."