Showalter on Gonzalez and a 6-0 win

The magic number is 16.

Should I stop here or keep going?

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said he had four relievers that he didn't want to use tonight. Turns out, he never had to tap into his bullpen.

Miguel Gonzalez posted his first career complete game and shutout, and the second by an Oriole this season. Chris Tillman blanked the Royals on May 16.

"I don't want to say he deserves it, but Miggy is such a team guy, he's such a professional, and that was a professional outing," Showalter said following a 6-0 win over the Reds. "A lot of late life to the fastball, pitched up when he needed to, split was there, breaking ball. He had a lot of things working tonight, obviously.

"I think he only faced a couple guys on their team coming into the game. Going around the order that many times, it tells you he had a lot of things working.

"Caleb (Joseph) was really good with him tonight. You get catchers who have an idea about calling a game like our guys do, that many bullets to work with, they can make it look like tonight."

Showalter didn't hesitate to send out Gonzalez for the ninth.

"That was pretty easy," Showalter said. "He only had 90, 95. He was fine. Dave (Wallace) talks to him every inning. He's one of our best conditioned guys. He's got plenty of innings and pitches available. He's in a spot where he's got a lot of bullets left.

"We had four guys in the 'pen we weren't going to use tonight. That had nothing to do with it. Whether we had them available or not, he would have gone back out there."

Gonzalez demonstrated again that he's a team player by twice being optioned without complaint in the second half while the Orioles tweaked their roster.

"We all understand it wasn't his idea," Showalter said. "If it was up to him, he wouldn't. But I told him at the time, there's going to come a time here shortly where this is not an option for you, no pun intended, but it was what's best for our club at that point. And where we were in different parts of the season, things we had to do to make other things... and we felt like make him better in September, and hopefully October."

Gonzalez has allowed two earned runs or fewer in eight of his last nine starts. Maybe those trips to the minors benefited him.

"It's so easy to say now after the fact, but a guy like Miggy, he doesn't... there's a real trust there," Showalter said. "He knows we like him and knows we're going to try to keep him in the best position to do good things for our team and do good things for his career and continue to support his family."

This stretch of outings is reminiscent of Gonzalez's dominant stretch in 2012.

"I could probably go back and say it was pretty close to it," Showalter said. "Probably, I would think so. He's had a lot of things in his arsenal for an extended period of time. It's about the best he's felt physically, knock on wood, for an extended period of time."

The Orioles hit three home runs, including an opposite-field shot by Chris Davis.

"I think he's been a real threat for an extended period of time with the bat," Showalter said. "He's been in the middle of a lot of things, stayed selective for the most part. It's one of those things, a lot of first basemen would sign up for his year. Chris is trying to get some other things going. He knows he can bring that and he's doing it right now."

The Orioles must be encouraged that his latest home run traveled to the opposite field.

"The body language of the swing," Showalter said. "I'm not going to get overtechnical. Chris, he never dropped his work habits. I remember watching the replay and saw where the pitch was and the swing he put on it. I remember saying to myself, that reminds me of some swings we saw on tape not just last year, but this year, too."

The Orioles are 24 games above .500 for the first time since the end of the 2012 season.

Did I mention the magic number?