Zach Britton on Mychal Givens and Tommy Hunter, plus other notes

The Orioles scored two runs in a game twice in the series against Atlanta and won both games. They have scored eight runs on back-to-back nights against Detroit and they go 1-1.

So, yeah, baseball. Hard to predict how it will go on any given night. But Friday was kind of Givens' night.

Mychal Givens, the 25-year-old right-hander who began his pro career as a shortstop, got his first major league victory last night. It was his second major league appearance.

Givens featured the solid mid-90s velocity he showed in the minors, where sometimes he topped out above that. He also had that sharp slider. He showed poise, too, coming in the game after Mike Wright left injured. He entered in a game where the Orioles were trailing 6-1. But when he took the mound for his second inning, they were down just 6-5.

O's closer Zach Britton was impressed with his work.

"It is interesting to see how he bounces back," Britton said. "He comes into the game with a decent deficit. Then, all the sudden, he is back out there in a one-run game, and he handled that really well. That's impressive. He didn't get overwhelmed with the situation, and he is a big reason we won that game. Good to see him get that first win, too, that is always exciting."

Yesterday was an interesting one for Orioles bullpen pitchers. They saw two veterans leave the clubhouse in Tommy Hunter and Bud Norris. Two young pitchers returned to the team in Wright and Givens.

Britton said it was tough to see Hunter leave. They have lockers next to one another and spent many of nights together out in the Orioles bullpen.

"That's tough. You played with someone for four years and you get to know him off the field, too," Britton said. "We build friendships, and it's tough to see him go. He kept us loose in the bullpen. We know that at any time we all could be traded. For us, it's not just a business. It is about these friendships."

As for the standings, the Orioles are tied for second in the American League East, six games back of the Yankees. New York beat the White Sox 13-6 last night and has won nine of its last 12 games. In the race for the second AL wild card, the Orioles and Toronto stand one game behind the Minnesota Twins.

More notes on the Orioles:

* Both Miguel Gonzalez and Wei-Yin Chen have been knocked out of the game in the fourth inning the last two nights. They have combined to pitch just 6 2/3 innings in this series, allowing 20 hits and 11 runs. Detroit batters are 20-for-36 (.556) against those O's starters in this series. In the previous six games before facing the Tigers, O's starters went 4-0 with an ERA of 1.25.

* In the first four innings the last two nights, Detroit has outscored the Orioles 13-3. In innings five through nine, the Orioles have outscored the Tigers 13-3.

* Chen allowed three runs or less for 11 consecutive starts until last night. That dated back to May 20 against Seattle when he allowed four runs in seven innings.

* Last night was the Orioles' largest comeback win of the year. They trailed 6-0 in the fourth inning. The previous biggest comeback victory was from three runs down, May 22 at Miami.

* The Orioles have eight homers over their last four games, hitting two in each game. They have 12 multi-homer games over the last 20 games.

* After going through a stretch where they scored three runs or less in 14-of-17 games, the Orioles have now scored 37 runs the past seven contests and 16 runs in the two games in this series.

Delmarva's no-hitter and more from the minors: The Orioles' Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds affiliate won both games of a doubleheader at home last night by shutouts of 4-0 and 2-0 against Charleston. In Game 1, left-hander John Means pitched a seven-inning no-hitter on just 78 pitches. Delmarva pitchers allowed just three hits in the twin bill.

MASNSports.com's Pete Kerzel was at Friday's no-hitter at Perdue Stadium and filed this story with comments from Means on his no-no.

Elsewhere in the O's minors, Triple-A Norfolk now has the best record in the International League, and Double-A Bowie has the best record in the Eastern League.

Norfolk won 10-6 at Lehigh Valley as Henry Urrutia went 3-for-5 with a homer, and is batting .289. The Tides are 62-43 and leading their division by 4 1/2 games.

Bowie posted a 4-2 walk-off win over Trenton. Quincy Latimore hit two homers. His second was a two-run shot with two outs in the last of the ninth to end the game. The Baysox are 60-45 and leading their division by four games. Bowie has tied its season-high, winning six in a row, and is now a season-high 15 games over .500.

The rookie-level Gulf Coast League Orioles routed the Rays 16-4 on Friday. Infielder Alejandro Juvier, the club's 15th-round draft choice in 2014, went 5-for-6 with two runs scored and six RBIs. Over his last four games, Juvier is 12-for-18, raising his batting average from .237 to .319.