Showalter on Britton, bullpen, Smith and a 6-5 win

Seth Smith hit his first home run tonight as an Oriole and Donnie Hart earned his first major league win. Nice timing for a team that now sits alone in first place in the American League East.

Smith reached the flag court in right field with his two-run shot in the seventh and the Orioles rallied for a 6-5 win over the Yankees before an announced crowd of 25,248 at Camden Yards.

Jonathan Schoop reached on third baseman Chase Headley's second error of the night and advanced to third base on J.J. Hardy's sacrifice bunt. Smith followed with his second hit, a double in the first inning trumped by a home run off reliever Tyler Clippard that provided the final margin.

Smith was 0-for-5 with four walks and two strikeouts against Clippard before tonight.

Brad Brach struck out the side in the eighth inning and Zach Britton recorded his second save while making his third appearance this week. He's converted 51 save chances in a row to tie Jose Valverde for the fourth-longest streak in baseball history, and his 122 saves tie Jim Johnson for second on the club's all-time list behind Gregg Olson (160).

Britton got a called third strike on Brett Gardner to start the ninth. He knocked down Gary Sánchez's comebacker and twisted his right ankle, but still managed to get back on his feet and make the throw, with Chris Davis coming up with another scoop to save an error.

Britton stayed in the game after a few warmup tosses and retired pinch-hitter Chris Carter on one pitch.

"Rolled his ankle a little," said manager Buck Showalter. "I looked at the replay. Didn't look too bad, but we'll see how it manages when the adrenaline kind of wears off."

Hart didn't get a decision in his 22 appearances last season. He was making his 2017 debut tonight and picked up the win by recording one out.

Hart replaced Darren O'Day with one on and two outs in the seventh and Jacoby Ellsbury poked a single into left field. Starlin Castro grounded to short and Hart was done.

The bullpen hasn't allowed a run in 12 1/3 innings in the three games. Oliver Drake (one inning), O'Day (1 1/3), Hart (one-third), Brach (one) and Britton (one) shut out the Yankees tonight.

"We had four guys I was hoping to use tonight in a perfect world," Showalter said. "I wanted to get Donnie out there, I wanted to get Darren out there. The only guy we didn't get out there was (Vidal) Nuño. Got Oliver out there. So we've got after three games just one guy that hasn't pitched.

"With the off-days and everything, it's kind of been every other day with Brad and Zach, so they've had a day's rest between their outings. I was really glad to get Darren off the schneid, so to speak. It's been 10 days. To get through that game with some guys who hadn't really been out there in quite a while, it was good to get a W out of it."

Smith was limited in spring training because of a hamstring injury, but he had no trouble circling the bases in the seventh.

"The problem is, if you go up there trying to hit a fly ball, more times than not it's really a bad mentality over the years, I've found," Showalter said. "But he was just trying to get something he could put a good swing on with the infield in. They kind of had this shift on, so there was the possibility on a slow-developing ground ball that Jon would have broke with the lead he had over at third.

"It was a good, professional at-bat. He's a good guy to have up in that situation."

It sealed a comeback victory on a frigid night. A comeback that started with Manny Machado's three-run homer off Luis Severino in the fifth that reduced the Yankees' lead to 5-4.

"When you're throwing that many pitches early in the game, believe me when you're standing out there in the cold and the wind chill, it's a real tribute to our guys," Showalter said. "It verifies what we think of them. They just refuse to ... Of course, Manny had the big blow of the night. You've got to keep that in mind.

"Severino, thank goodness it's early in the season where you have to protect him, because he had the type of stuff to go real deep in that game. It was impressive. A guy throwing that hard and commanding the baseball, it's tough.

Ubaldo Jiménez threw 30 pitches in the first inning and left after 4 1/3 with his count at 94 and the Yankees leading 5-1. Matt Holliday and Sánchez homered off him.

"Capable of better," Showalter said. "You try to give guys a little pass with the weather. You've got to have a feel for the split with that weather and I think both home runs were splits that didn't split properly. I think I'm right. He's capable of better. Hopefully, when the weather warms up he gets a better feel for it, because he had a good one in the spring."