Showalter on Tillman, Jones and a 1-0 win

The Chris Tillman bounceback season continues to gain momentum and hang time.

Tillman turned in his fifth consecutive quality start tonight, shutting out the Tigers on five hits over seven innings in a 1-0 victory before an announced crowd of 30,488 at Camden Yards.

Tillman walked two and struck out seven, including two in his final inning after Nick Castellanos' leadoff double. He threw 107 pitches, 70 for strikes.

In those five quality starts, Tillman has surrendered only six runs in 33 innings. His ERA for the season is down to 2.58 in 45 1/3 innings.

Building off this morning's blog entry, Tillman still has allowed only one home run in eight starts. And Tigers starter Justin Verlander lost his first game in eight decisions at Camden Yards.

Adam Jones provided the game's only run with his 200th career home run, his 197th as an Oriole and his third in the last four games. It was a shot into the Orioles bullpen in the sixth that Darren O'Day misplayed.

O'Day was much better on the mound, stranding Jose Iglesias in the eighth after a leadoff single on an 0-2 pitch. O'Day has been scored upon once in his 16 outings.

Zach Britton earned his 10th save and the Orioles won their sixth game in a row to improve to 22-12. Britton and Jorge Julio are tied for fifth on the club's all-time saves list with 83.

Jones needs three more home runs to join Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson, Brady Anderson and Rafael Palmeiro as the only players to hit 200 as Orioles.

The Orioles also beat the Yankees 1-0 in 10 innings on May 5 at Camden Yards.

One of the game's finest plays that shouldn't go unnoticed came in the eighth inning when first baseman Chris Davis fielded Ian Kinsler's sharp grounder after the Iglesias single and fired to second base for the force. He could have just gone to first for the easy out and the Tigers would have had a runner in scoring position.

I'm not sure how many first basemen make that play. I was sure that manager Buck Showalter would mention it later.

Here's a sampling from Showalter:

On Tillman: "You go in the game you know that you're going to have to have a well-pitched game to be in it. And Chris did. Emptied his tank a little bit there in the seventh, and Darren and Zach did a great job. Tilly was good. Watching both of those guys pitch is such a ... Both of them have great angle. They were pitchers as much as throwers. Be a lot more enjoyable if you knew how it was going to turn out so you could sit back and enjoy watching two pitchers really good at their trade. A real fine margin of error there."

On whether Tillman resembles his 2014 self: "Yeah, and we saw that some last year, OK? I've said that a bunch of times. It's not like he just wasn't good every time out. But Chris has got a good feel right now. There's a lot of pressure on catchers. He doesn't shake Matt (Wieters) off and there's a lot of pressure on catchers on both sides to put down good fingers. The confidence our pitchers have in him and Caleb, create a good tempo for them."

On Tillman getting out of early jams: "He had his pitch count down, more manageable there. He had a couple quick innings. They had some first-pitch swings that he got some outs on. Trum (Mark Trumbo) made a few plays tonight. The mistakes he did make, there wasn't much damage.

"I thought the leadoff double (in the seventh) and coming back and finishing up that inning ... Actually, before the inning I thought he might pitch the eighth, but he had emptied the tank there, and as good of options as we have with Darren and Zach there, but that was impressive. The type of games that guys really like to play defense behind."

On Tillman allowing only one home run this season: "I don't like broadcasting it a lot. He's got command of some pitches that he didn't a lot of times last year and it's created a different look. Our catcher's really good about trying not to show the whole repertoire in the first two or three innings and you've got somewhere to go. You can't just sit there and stay with one pattern. They're going to get you."

On whether he sensed Jones would homer: "No inkling. Both those guys looked like they were going to be able to put zeroes up as long as they could toe the rubber. Even when they had somebody on, you always felt like both of them had command of what was going on. But he didn't make many mistakes and Adam jumped on one of the few he made."

On Wieters having a bloodied nose on a foul tip: "He got cut pretty good there. Looks like Joe Louis. Richie (Bancells) did a good job of stopping the bleeding. Don't know if he's going to need stitches or not."

On Jones approaching 200 home runs as an Oriole: "I noticed that the other day. If you think about the other six or seven people you're talking about, one, you've got to be good and be wanted in a place for that long. A lot of people in today's game, they move on, but he wanted to be here and we wanted him to be here. It's a product of him being a good player and being with one club for a long period of time."

On Davis' play: "Huge play. Not many first basemen throw that baseball. I told him coming off the field that was a huge play there. That's the separator. I think that's why he's going to win a Gold Glove this year. You get a lot of guys who can catch a ground ball and scoop a ball in the dirt, whatever, but the throw is what separates first basemen and the fearlessness to do it. Chris is a weapon with that."