Wrapping up a 5-4 win

The Orioles handed the Astros their first road series loss of the season with today's rain-delayed 5-4 win at Camden Yards.

It was made possible by Chris Davis' second home run of the day, a solo shot off Astros left-hander Tony Sipp in the bottom of the eighth inning.

A Sipp and a bite, so to speak.

Here's Davis:

On being more patient:
"Swung at a couple breaking balls earlier in the count. Thought I did a better job of making an adjustment and making him throw it in the zone. That's big not just for me, but for everyone in the lineup. I think the reputation on this team is out. A lot of teams are changing speed earlier in the count and trying to get us to chase."

On contributing:
"It felt good. Last night kind of started it, the sac fly to right. You get two strikes and are pretty much grinding it the whole time. Was able to get Jimmy (Paredes) to score. Little things like that, you have to stay positive when you are trying to find it, and it carried over today."

On Adam Jones' bunt single in the fourth:
"It's huge. Jonsie is the type of player that can do a lot of different things and it was wide open for him right there and he took advantage of it. That's just the kind of player he is. He's going to sacrifice himself for the team every time."

On getting momentum from the Jimmy Paredes/Jones double steal in the fourth:
"With Buck, it's never out of the question to do something like that. When I saw Adam take off and I saw the throw go down to second, I took my eyes off the second baseman or the shortstop and I looked at Jimmy, so I didn't really see what the shortstop did. But Jimmy did a great job of getting to the outside and getting his hand in. That's just little things like that can put the momentum back in the team's dugout."

On picking up starter Ubaldo Jimenez, who allowed four runs in seven innings:
"I thought he threw the ball well. This is a good lineup and obviously (Evan) Gattis struck that ball well. But Ubaldo's been good for us all year. He's been going deep in games and throwing the ball really well, and it was good for us to pick him up and get the win."

On whether having a day off helped him:
"As a player, I don't think you ever want a day off. You want to be in there every day, but sometimes you need it. Sometimes it's better for them just to tell you to take a day as opposed to asking you. So I think it was good. I definitely could have used the rest. It was good for me to kind of sit back and watch the game and take a day off mentally."

Here's manager Buck Showalter:

On whether he felt Davis was due to break out:
"Sure. The reason why we talk about that, or you talk about it, is because of what he's done in the past and what his track record shows. You look at some of the ERAs of their bullpen and do it off Sipp, that's pretty hard to do. They don't lose many of those games after the seventh inning this year, so to take two out of three ... Do they have the best record in the league? That's pretty hard to do. You had to earn everything."

On Jimenez and the Astros' three-run seventh:
"I thought Ubaldo was really good. He deserved a lot better fate. The game's not always fair. You look at that one inning, you've got a weak ground ball for the first out and you've got a broken bat that Manny (Machado) flinched on, rightfully so with the bat flying at him, and a broken bat by (Jose) Altuve that found a hole we were covering second on. And then you get a routine ground ball that we're playing a shift on and can't turn that one. It's just unfortunate. He really pitched well. He deserved a lot better."

On whether the fourth inning removed some pressure:
"Probably not. Between now and 1 o'clock tomorrow, maybe. But it will start back up again. It always does. There's a challenge around every corner here at this level. It's not that you don't have any other choice, you just trust the good people who have a track record and are grinding and working and trying to get back to the level we know they're capable of and sometimes it's not ... You've got to keep fighting to get to the end game."

On Brad Brach being 10-1 with the Orioles:
"I don't know if that's necessarily good out of the bullpen. What do you want them to be, 1-10? That's a lot better than the other, huh? He's good. You don't do it up here for more than two or three outings unless you're good at what you do. Brad's worked hard to maintain his health and his arm strength, and you could tell in the spring he was wanting to ... Brad does it for the right reasons, but when guys get to a point where they're able to start getting some things back, that's why (Bill) Parcells used to say that's why you lift all those weights, to get a chance to play at the best level in the world. Brad's not going to pass on an opportunity. When you've been through some of the things he's been through, you know how things can change and how fleeting they are for all of us in baseball and in life in general."

On whether the double steal fired up everyone:
"You'd have to ask the fans. I know we scored a run. That's always exciting, no matter how many runs you've been scoring. I'd like to think other things would have happened afterward if we hadn't. Our two players, Adam and Jimmy, executed the play perfectly. Hats off to them. That's how it all came about because they executed it perfectly."

Here's Brach, who retired the Astros in order in the eighth:

On whether he's been in the right place at the right time:
"I'm just glad to be out when we're winning games. Just being the right guy at the right time, and hopefully, I can be the right guy out there for a few more times coming up."

On how he's feeling now after rough beginning to season:
"Yeah, I feel real good. Coming out of spring, I just didn't feel like myself. After those couple of outings, I just pretty much had to get it out of my own head. I was bouncing ideas around in my own head, thinking something was wrong. Since then, I've been feeling good and hopefully continue, keep it going."

On pitching in the later innings:
"It's awesome. It's what every reliever wants. They want to be in in the eighth, ninth inning in a close game. Definitely, it was a great feeling and hopefully I can continue to keep doing that."

On Davis' home runs:
"Yeah, it's awesome. Any time you see that swing and he makes contact and the ball hit to right field, you know it's going to the bleachers. You just want to see how far it goes. That's awesome for him. He works hard every day and I'm glad to see it's paying off."

Here's Jimenez, who took a 4-1 lead into the seventh and settled for a no-decision:

On how much fast innings helped:
"It helped me a lot. They have a really good lineup, but they're pretty aggressive. You have to make pitches down or they're going to be swinging right away."

On Davis:
"That was a nice, especially he's one of the best teammates that we have in the clubhouse. He's grinding every at-bat. He's working to support the team, so we're happy for him."

On his effort:
"I think I did good. I mean, the main thing is I was able to go deep in the game because we have two games tomorrow, and we won the game. That's what matters."

On winning the series:
"It's good. Those guys are playing really good right now. You even saw, you know, the ninth inning, they never give up. They're going to keep taking every at-bat like it's the last. Winning a series against them is pretty good."

Down on the farm, Bud Norris gave up four runs and six hits in five innings at Double-A Bowie, with no walks and seven strikeouts. He kept Erie scoreless through the first three innings.