Orioles end losing streak at five games with 5-1 win (with quotes)

MINNESOTA - Wade Miley wanted the starting assignment today. He didn't beg for it. He didn't stand on top of manager Buck Showalter's desk and pound his chest. But he didn't want to give the appearance that he was hiding from his slump. Give him the ball and another chance.

Why stagger into the break when you can strut?

Miley came within an out of a defined quality start, holding the Twins to one run, and the Orioles ended their five-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory before an announced crowd of 26,323 at Target Field.

The Orioles improved to 41-46 overall, 16-30 on the road and 7-16 versus the American League Central. They'll try for a split of the four-game series before shutting down for the All-Star break.

Darren O'Day inherited two runners in the sixth, hit a batter to load the bases and struck out Eduardo Escobar to complete Miley's line. Mychal Givens followed with two scoreless innings and Brad Brach struck out the side in the ninth.

Jonathan Schoop homered in his first major league game as a shortstop and it was a doozy, the ball hitting the third deck in left field with Manny Machado aboard in the fourth inning to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead.

The home run, which came off left-hander Adalberto Mejía, measured 455 feet per the Twins and 462 per Statcast. No one could debate that it was a big-boy shot.

Schoop and Machado are tied for the team lead with 18 home runs with one game remaining before the All-Star break.

Machado followed his four-hit, four-RBI night with a single in the fourth and an RBI double in the sixth that scored Joey Rickard, who led off with a double, and increased the lead to 3-1.

Escobar waved at the ball as it zipped past him at 105.4 mph per Statcast. Escobar didn't have an excuse while booting Mark Trumbo's grounder to score Machado and give the Orioles a 4-1 lead.

Trumbo provided some insurance in the eighth inning with his 14th home run, and the Orioles rationed the Twins to one run after allowing an average of 6.6 runs per game on the road trip.

Miley was making his second career start against the Twins and his 18th start of the season. The only run off him in 5 2/3 innings came on Miguel Sanó's 21st homer with two outs in the third. The next two batters singled, giving the Twins six hits in 2 2/3 innings, but Miley didn't let the game get away from him.

Miley hasn't registered a quality start since June 1 against the Red Sox and he failed to complete the third inning in three of six outings before today. Showalter called on O'Day after Byron Buxton reached on an infield hit with two outs in the sixth and Jason Castro poked a single into left field to beat the shift.

O'Day fell behind Brian Dozier 3-0 and drilled him, but he struck out Escobar on a 2-2 pitch to preserve the 4-1 lead. He's been used in three consecutive games, though he threw only three pitches Thursday night.

Miley allowed one run and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings, with three walks and four strikeouts. He threw 107 pitches, 59 for strikes. Such a dramatic improvement over his most recent outing, when the Brewers torched him for seven runs in 1 2/3 innings.

There was some tension, of course, with the Twins having multiple runners reach base in four innings - and with two outs in three of them. But the final result was all that mattered.

Schoop appeared to be comfortable at shortstop, his original position in the minors, before moving to second base in the bottom of the eighth. He handled Eddie Rosario's ground ball to open the second, started a 6-5-3 double play while shifted to the right side to end the fourth and had three assists in the fifth - an inning that included a pair of two-out walks.

It also included another scary moment for Miley, who seems to be a magnet. The broken barrel of Kenny Vargas' bat nailed him on the leg and sent him crashing to the ground as Schoop hustled for the ball and got the final out.

Miley was hit by a comebacker in an exhibition game in Bradenton and by two line drives in the first inning of a May 5 game against the White Sox at Camden Yards. At least he changed it up today.

Schoop fielded another ball cleanly in the sixth and made a nice backhanded stop of Buxton's grounder in the hole, but he had no shot at getting the out. The play was much closer than it should have been considering the runner.

There's a pretty good chance that Schoop stays at shortstop Sunday afternoon and Showalter takes a longer look at Johnny Giavotella at second base.

There's a pretty strong argument for not messing with success after a rare win.

Showalter on the difference in Miley: "Obviously, command. He and Roger (McDowell) made some adjustments, just some little things. Ramon (Martinez) was there, too, but he did it. He was the difference. Hot, sticky day, easy to give in in a lot of ways. I was really proud of our guys today."

Showalter on Miley coming through: "It was a good way to end it. That's why these guys are who they are. They don't run away from their struggles. They want to get back and make the contributions that they're asked to make. That's very typical of Wade."

Showalter on Miley getting ahead with breaking ball: "Curveball and slider. The changeup was good for him, too. And he threw enough fastballs. He got some outs and pitched his way out. That's a good lineup. They're well-put together. They have a lot of different pieces, switch-hitters. They've got three shortstops, they can play anywhere. That's a well-conceived club. They present a lot of problems."

Showalter on O'Day getting big out: "That was big. That's why I had Darren there. He felt real good. He's had some short outings in three days, so that's a good sign for us as we go forward that he's going to show that durability the rest of the way."

Showalter on how Schoop looked at shortstop: "They had a lot of fun with it. Jon took it very serious and did a good job with it. Johnny brought a lot of energy to the game. He's 1-0 as a starter. Jon, sometimes you throw a few things out there like that just to change the giddy-up a little bit. Jon's a good option. So is Manny."

Third base coach Bobby Dickerson on Schoop: "Just brought back memories. I've seen him play there in rookie ball. Pretty athletic guy. As I keep saying about second base, we're going to stay in the middle. It's all about lower-half quickness. We know his hands are good, his arm strength is there, his intelligence level to play the middle infield is there. So he has everything other than the prototypical run-around sand flea-type lower half. But other than that, I was impressed."

Schoop on shortstop: "It felt good. I was excited a little bit. It's like the shift. Like Bobby told me before the game, you treat it the same way as if there was a shift over there. I've been there, just calm myself down and make the routine (plays)."

Schoop joking that Machado didn't help him: "No, I helped him. Manny didn't help me. Manny didn't even know what he was doing over there. He can't help me."

Schoop on Miley: "It was really important. Wade pounded the zone, attacked hitters, and we scored early for him and he kept us in the game, threw strikes and get us up and in and out. We scored some runs and he pitched really good."

Schoop on crisper game from team: "Yeah, everything worked today. We're looking forward to tomorrow, win tomorrow, win going into the break and then go into the second half strong, better than the first half, so we can push for the playoffs."

Miley on feeling good to enter break on high note: "Definitely better. Something to build on. I thought I was in a way better place out there mechanically with staying back over the rubber longer and it allowed me to do a lot more out front. But yeah definitely, a positive to take into the All-Star break."

Miley on breaking balls for strikes early: "I think it just keeps the hitters on the defense, rather than falling (behind) 1-0 and they go into attack mode right away. It kind of backs them off a little bit, and you just try to execute pitches from there. In those first couple of innings, I was in and out of damage, but I wasn't getting ahead. You can kind of see the difference. In the third, fourth, fifth and sixth, I kind of got ahead and had a little less stressful innings and that's where we want to be."

Miley on whether the broken bat hit him: "No, the bat did not hit me. I was able to get out of the way. I landed on the ground and scraped my knee. That was it."

Miley on the losing streak ending: "Yeah, the offense, Schoopy there, that's a big homer, a big momentum swing for us when he hit that two-run homer. And we tacked on a few more the next inning, or two innings, whatever it was. And that one thing about it was I just wanted to throw up zeros. That's a gritty team over there. They're swinging the bat really well. You just try to keep them off the scoreboard. We had three runs at the time. Just don't let them score four."