Orioles rally from five down to beat Tigers 7-5, run win streak to five

On a night they got a poor outing from their starting pitcher, did not hit a home run and fell behind by five runs, the Orioles still won.

They ran their win streak to five games tonight beating the Detroit Tigers 7-5 in the series and homestand opener at Camden Yards. Trailing 5-0, the Orioles scored twice in the sixth and then added five runs in the seventh to rally to victory. They improved to 21-12 and are a season-high nine games over .500.

The Orioles have outscored their opponents 37-15 during their win streak and improved to 14-5 at home.

They finally got to Tigers starter Mike Pelfrey in the sixth with an RBI double by Chris Davis and an RBI infield single by Jonathan Schoop to cut their deficit to 5-2. Pelfrey brought a record of 0-4 and 6.23 ERA into the start and had a shutout through five frames.

Against a parade of Detroit bullpen arms an inning later, they produced six hits to get the lead. That rally featured RBI singles by Adam Jones and Davis to make it 5-4. Then Pedro Alvarez, just 1-for-11 this year off left-handed pitching, lined a single to right off lefty Justin Wilson for a 5-5 tie. Schoop followed with a two-run triple to right for the 7-5 lead. It was Schoop's first major league triple and he had a three-RBI night. He had driven in just one run his previous nine games.

Some control issues for O's right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez started almost right from the start. With one out in the first he issued back-to-back walks to J.D. Martinez and Miguel Cabrera. A Victor Martinez RBI single to left made it 1-0. A J.D. Martinez 6-4-3 double play grounder ended the second as Jimenez pitched out of a bases loaded mess. But Detroit added two in the fourth on a Jarrod Saltalamacchia solo homer and Cabrera's RBI groundout.

Through four innings, the Tigers were 8-for-19 at-bat against Jimenez, who had walked four to that point. But Detroit was 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base to keep the score from getting worse for Jimenez.

After his only 1-2-3 inning of the night in the fifth, Jimenez could not get through the sixth as Detroit scored twice more to lead 5-0. Cabrera and Victor Martinez had RBI singles off reliever Vance Worley that scored runs charged to Jimenez.

Worley got the win in relief. Darren O'Day pitched a scoreless eighth and Zach Britton a scoreless ninth to record his ninth save in nine chances. Jimenez allowed nine hits and five runs (four earned) over five innings plus two batters. Jimenez threw 105 pitches, 64 strikes and has an ERA of 4.87. O's starters had a run of four straight quality starts end tonight.

But their run of wins did not end, thanks to a rally from 5-0 behind. They take the first of this four-game series as Detroit falls to 15-19 with nine losses in its last 10 games. The Orioles have won seven of nine and 10 of the last 14 games.

On Friday night, Chris Tillman (4-1, 3.05 ERA) gets the start against right-hander Justin Verlander (2-3, 5.40 ERA) at 7:05 p.m.