Straily solid in relief in win, O's make roster moves (updated)

When the first two hitters he faced today combined to produce a run, it looked like right-hander Dan Straily might have another rough outing. But he turned it around and gave the Orioles a solid long-relief job as the Orioles beat the Tigers 5-3 at Oriole Park.

As the Orioles won for just the third time in 14 games, Straily allowed just one run over four innings. He began the game with an ERA of 9.09 overall and 12.09 at home and had recently been moved from the starting rotation. In fact, Gabriel Ynoa took his scheduled spot today.

Straily came on in the fifth with Baltimore ahead 4-2, and when Christin Stewart singled and then scored on Nicholas Castellanos' double, the lead was just one. But Straily would give up just one more hit. Over four innings he walked one and fanned four and got the victory. He threw 57 pitches, 38 for strikes, and leaned heavily on his fastball.

Shawn Armstrong got the last three outs for his second career save, stranding the tie runs in scoring position at the end of the game.

After they scored 22 runs in Colorado and 43 the last seven games, the Orioles took a first-inning 2-0 lead today. It came via another Renato Núñez home run, his 13th. His two-run shot high off the left field foul pole provided the early lead. Núñez connected on a drive that went 430 feet, and it was his fifth homer in six games and sixth in the last eight.

After Detroit pulled within a run in the second, the lead grew to 4-1 with a two-run third. With Trey Mancini on first and one out, Núñez hit a grounder to short and the Tigers had a chance to turn two. Instead shortstop Ronny Rodriguez threw the ball into right field, Mancini scored and Núñez scampered to third. He would score on a Pedro Severino sac fly, and the O's lead was three.

But an RBI single in the fourth by JaCoby Jones off Ynoa and that Castellanos RBI double an inning later off Straily cut that lead down to 4-3.

Making the spot start today, Ynoa went four innings, allowing five hits and two runs on a season-high 85 pitches. Ynoa, who had a 14.22 ERA over his last four appearances, was making his first major league start since Sept. 27, 2017.

The Orioles got an insurance run to make it 5-3 on Jonathan Villar's long solo homer to right center in the seventh. It was No. 7 for Villar and was hit 456 feet. That is his longest homer ever recorded by Statcast.

With the win, the Orioles are 17-37 overall and 7-19 at home, where they had lost eight of nine before today.

Roster moves: During today's game the Orioles traded right-hander Yefry Ramirez to Pittsburgh for a player to be named or cash considerations. The 25-year-old right-hander had been designated for assignment last Wednesday. In four games this year he went 0-2 with a 6.97 ERA in 10 1/3 innings. In parts of the last two seasons for Baltimore he went 1-10 with an ERA of 6.07 in 21 games, making 13 starts.

The Orioles also optioned reliever Evan Phillips. They will likely call up a position player tomorrow.

Hyde on Ynoa and Straily today: "Well, both those guys were going to go as long as possible, and they both just did an outstanding job. We were really short today after the Colorado weekend and they both stepped up big-time. Dan Straily, that was just a great performance. I know he feels good after having some rough outings these last few weeks. For him to come in and give us four-plus innings out of the bullpen and save a ton of guys and put up zeroes was the difference in the game."

Why was Straily better today? "I just think there was more quality strikes. A lot more quality strikes. Eliminated walks. Stayed off the barrel, obviously. Attacked hitters. I thought it was really nice. I think he found his slider a little bit as the outing went along. He did a nice job locating his fastball. So just a really, really good performance on a day that we really needed it."