Wade Miley pitches a gem as O's beat Arizona 6-1

Orioles left-hander Wade Miley was dealing and Trey Mancini was swinging. Both helped the Orioles to an important 6-1 win over the Diamondbacks tonight in front of 40,610 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards

This win moved the Orioles (84-71) a half-game ahead of the Tigers (83-71) for the second American League wild-card spot with seven games to play. They remain 1 1/2 games behind Toronto, which holds the first AL wild card spot.

Miley lost a shutout bid with two outs in the ninth on Brandon Drury's RBI double and Tyler Wilson came on to get the last out. He was bidding to become the first Oriole since Miguel Gonzalez against Cincinnati on Sept. 3, 2014 to pitch a shutout.

But Miley was excellent, going 8 2/3 innings allowing seven hits and the one run with no walks and 11 strikeouts, which tied his career high. He improved to 9-13 with an ERA of 5.40 and has allowed just one run in 12 2/3 over his past two starts.

Mancini tonight became the third player in major league history to homer in his first three starts. Mancini blasted a solo shot in the fourth to join Carlos Quentin of the 2006 Arizona Diamondbacks and Trevor Story from earlier this year with the Colorado Rockies.

The Orioles scored once in the first inning, but left the bases loaded there. Adam Jones drew a career-high 37th walk to start the game against lefty Robbie Ray. Singles by Chris Davis and Manny Machado brought him around the bases. He scored on Machado's 94th RBI.

In the O's second, Matt Wieters led off with a double and advanced to third on the play on an error by right fielder Yasmany Tomas. He scored for a 2-0 lead on J.J. Hardy's sac fly.

Mancini thrilled the crowd with a solo homer to left-center to lead off the fourth. He hit his third in three starts on a 92 mph 2-2 fastball. It went 434 feet for a 3-0 lead.

The O's made it 5-0 that inning after the Mancini homer. With one out, Wieters walked and advanced to third on Hardy's double. Both later scored on a bases-loaded two-run single to center by Davis.

The lead grew to 6-0 when Mark Trumbo led off the fifth with his 45th home run. He drove a Silvino Bracho pitch 410 feet to the Orioles bullpen for his fourth homer in nine games. The Orioles left some runs on the board tonight, going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, but they snapped a streak of seven consecutive games scoring three or fewer runs.

They go for a three-game sweep of Arizona in the regular season home finale on Sunday when Dylan Bundy (9-6, 4.13 ERA) pitches against right-hander Braden Shipley (4-4, 5.49 ERA).