Parra on his welcome, Gausman and Joseph on the win over Detroit

Gerardo Parra's first night as an Oriole was eventful. Get a standing ovation. Get a double in your first at-bat. Get a win. Become the 1,000th player in team history.

Yes, it went pretty well for him as the Orioles beat Detroit 6-2 and he went 1-for-3 with a walk.

"I want to say thank you to the fans for giving me a good welcome," Parra said. "I feel happy and like this is my house, too. That felt great. Big for me when you come to a new team and see the fans welcome you. I feel great, feel happy. Just want to play hard."

He tried to make it like just another game, even though it was a little more than that.

"When you have a team like this helping you, you feel relaxed and comfortable," he said. "Just want to help this team make the playoffs."

parra-running-orange-sidebar.jpgParra's double extended his hitting streak to 15 games. He is batting .453 during the streak. Tonight, he batted second in the order, behind Manny Machado and ahead of Adam Jones.

"I feel great with a leadoff hitter like Machado and Jones behind me. I will see good pitches. You don't want to walk me with Jones behind me. I can hit in that position too," he said.

On the mound Kevin Gausman snapped a 12-start winless stretch, getting his first win as a starter since Aug. 17, 2014. Gausman gave up just four hits and two runs over seven innings, throwing 106 pitches. He retired the first 11 batters he faced tonight.

"Early on, I just went at them with my fastballs and tried to mix it up after that," Gausman said. "I think for the first three innings, I only threw a couple of changeups. That is a tough lineup. Me and Caleb (Joseph) were on the same page from the get-go. That was pretty huge."

Gausman has an ERA of just 1.50 in 24 innings at home this year. After the game, he revealed that he was once a little timid pitching at Camden Yards.

"I think I feel really comfortable pitching here, which is a lot different then when I came up. I was always scared to give up home runs here," Gausman said. "Everyone always tell you how small the park is, and it's a hitter's park.

"I'm a little bit of a different pitcher than when I first came up. Then, it was stay away from guys more than be aggressive and go after them. That kind of got me in some trouble."

The Orioles have now taken two of the first three in this series and seven of their last eight games.

"We just want to keep winning. You see your best baseball at this point of the year. We need to string together more wins and hit the ground running on the west coast trip," Gausman said.

Joseph said it was fun to catch the right-hander tonight.

"The pitch to (Nick) Castellanos caught a little too much of the plate, but other than that, he really dominated with the fastball," Joseph said. "He was running it up there 97, 98, potentially 99, it's hard to hit. A great pitch for him.

"The stuff has always been there, we've known that for a long time. Each start he makes here we see command and command with the power. It's not like the command is coming with 92 mph. It's coming with 95, 96, 97 and that's big. He's really starting to settle in. That's the kind of starting pitching we need to make a run here."




Looking ahead and back
Showalter speaks after 6-2 win
 

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