Tillman gets early exit as Pittsburgh beats the Orioles 9-8

For the Orioles tonight, eight runs on 12 hits with a homer and four doubles was not enough. Chris Tillman lasted just one inning plus four batters in the second-shortest start of his career as Pittsburgh scored eight early runs and one late to beat the Orioles 9-8 at PNC Park. Down 8-6, the O's scored twice in the seventh on RBI singles by J.J. Hardy and pinch-hitter Steve Pearce to tie the game before the Pirates scored once in the bottom half to regain the lead. Starling Marte started the inning with a bunt single off Ryan Webb and later scored on a Tony Sanchez single as the Pirates broke the 8-8 tie and split the two-game series. In a wild start to the game, the Pirates led 8-6 after two innings. In his follow-up start to his five-hit shutout Friday at Kansas City, Tillman struggled. The Pirates scored four off him in both the first and second innings. Ten of the 13 batters he faced reached base as he failed to record an out in the second. Tillman gave up six hits and eight runs (six earned) on three walks with one strikeout. Tillman threw just 44 pitches as his ERA increased from 3.34 to 4.21. Tillman went just two-thirds of an inning on July 16, 2012 at Minnesota in his only big league start shorter than this one. Over his first three 2014 starts, Tillman pitched to an ERA of 0.84. Over his last seven, that mark is 6.19. Heading to the top of the second down 4-0, the O's scored six runs. They had some good fortune in the inning with a check-swing RBI infield hit from Chris Davis. Nelson Cruz had a groundball two-run double off the third base bag after starting the inning with a solo homer off Bucs starter Wandy Rodriguez, who gave up six runs in 1 2/3 innings. The Orioles have scored 23 runs over their past three games after scoring 15 in the previous seven and 39 over a 14-game stretch. The Orioles fall to 23-21 on the season and to 10-5 in one-run games. The Orioles begin a four-game series and homestand Thursday night against Cleveland at Camden Yards.