Showalter on Gausman, Trumbo on No. 40 and more clubhouse quotes

NEW YORK - Considering that the New York Yankees had torched Orioles pitching for 27 runs on 36 hits the past two days, throwing a shutout this afternoon was a nice upgrade. And, it provided a much-needed Orioles win.

Right-hander Kevin Gausman gave up seven hits and fanned nine over seven innings as the Orioles beat the Yankees 5-0 to avoid a sweep and record their fifth shutout. Gausman improved to 6-10 with a 3.73 ERA and has thrown 13 scoreless his past two starts. He is 1-1 with an ERA of 0.98 in four 2016 starts against the Yankees.

For now, the Orioles stopped the bleeding and they'll head home three games behind first-place Toronto. The Blue Jays come to Camden Yards for a three-game series Monday night.

After the game, O's skipper Buck Showalter threw some praise at Gausman and his defense.

"That's about as good as I've seen him," Showalter said of the right-hander. "He had really good command of his fastball and both offspeed pitches. Matt (Wieters) did a great job of, I call it, rocking the boat back and forth and not letting them sit on anything. He was solid. He could have continued and will in the future.

"Manny (Machado) and Jon (Schoop), they made so many good plays today defensively. The heck with what they did offensively. There were four or five plays made that not many people make. Being able to cover third base in the shift, that is hard to do. He may be the only guy that could have done that."

Showalter was asked about replacing Steve Pearce in right field with Ryan Flaherty in the seventh inning. Pearce missed some time earlier with a sore forearm.

"He had a little sting there on the one checked swing before the home run. The throw didn't bother him much, but I didn't want to take a chance there. He might have hit one more time, but I didn't want him to have to throw from down in the corner or something. He's fine," the skipper said.

Gausman went the first seven frames, throwing 108 pitches of the Orioles fifth shutout of the year and first since June 25.

"I'm just happy we got a win," Gausman said. "Obviously, the first two games didn't go the way we wanted. My goal was just to go deep in the game, whether I got beat up or not. I wanted to go seven and give those guys a break a little. I was able to throw all my pitches for strikes and for chase when I wanted to. I feel like when I can do that, it's going to be a lot easier for me to get quality starts and go deep into the game.

"I was just trying to go out there and be a stopper today. Get quick outs, ground balls. Kinda put it on them," he said.

Gausman ended a stretch of 25 consecutive road starts without a win, a run of games that dated to Aug. 17, 2014.

"I'm pretty relieved about it," he said. "It's been kind of annoying to hear. But I know it's kind of what you guys have to do. So, I'm just happy we got a win as a team. I pitched well enough to get multiple wins on the road this year and had some tough no decisions. Today, it just went my way."

The game featured the 40th home run for Mark Trumbo, a two-run shot off Ben Heller in the eighth inning. With 40 homers, Trumbo is tied for seventh-most in a season in club history and he is the fifth-fastest in team history to get to 40. He did it in Game No. 129.

It was pretty clear this longball had significant meaning for Trumbo.

"If I had to say, it's probably a little bit more special," he said. "You know, they're all special and this is a big part of my game. It's something that teams kind of count on for me to do, if they bring me in. It's been nice to contribute.

"It's hard to have a goal like that coming into the year, because it's such a lofty number. At least for me it has been, because I haven't gotten there before. But, I think I've been inspired by the guys around me. This year, especially, that's probably helped out a bit."

The four Orioles that got to 40 homers faster to Trumbo are Chris Davis (Game 109 in 2013), Jim Gentile (Game 119 in 1961), Brady Anderson (Game 120 in 1996) and Frank Robinson (Game 123 in 1966).

Pearce gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead today with a solo homer off CC Sabathia in the sixth inning. His clutch two-out, two-run single an inning later off Adam Warren made it 3-0, and Trumbo's homer completed the scoring. Pearce batted leadoff today, a first for him.

"I never hit leadoff before in my career. I was excited and up for the challenge," he said.

The Orioles didn't get what they wanted out of this weekend, but they salvaged the series with today's win. Pearce said they put the 14-4 and 13-5 losses in their rear-view mirror on Saturday night.

"We flushed them. We were ready for today. You know, that is the beauty of baseball, you play every day. You have to be able to flush it. We weren't looking back on it and we just knew we had to take care of today and try to salvage the series," he said.

Now, the Orioles head home to face Toronto.

"It's going to be a dog fight, they always are," Pearce said. "It's the AL East in (August). This is what it's all about. We're going to have them at our place. We're going to go out there, bring everything we've got and try to take care of business."

Showalter picked up his 1,411th career managerial win today. He moves past Hall of Famer Al Lopez for 26th on baseball's all-time manager wins list.