Jones' 200th Career Homerun Wins The Game
BALTIMORE -- Adam Jones does not worry much about personal milestones, thinking more about victories. He earned both on Friday night.
Jones hit his 200th career homer, and Chris Tillman threw seven shutout innings as the Baltimore Orioles stretched their winning streak to six games with a 1-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
The Baltimore center fielder doesn't talk much about what he accomplishes. Wins are what he looks for first and foremost, so Jones kind of shrugged off what the 200th career homer meant to him.
"(It means) I've been playing for a while," Jones said. "I think it's pretty cool, glad we got the win. I think personal things are all cool and fine and dandy if you go out there and play and perform every day, things like this tend to happen."
Jones homered in the sixth inning, crushing a fastball into the Baltimore bullpen for the game's only run, and also moved into eighth place on the team's all-time RBI list with 663 runs batted in.
He now has a six-game hitting streak and is hitting .407 (11-for-27) during that stretch.
The Jones home run was truly the only offense the Orioles (22-12) could muster against Detroit starter Justin Verlander (2-4), who shut down Baltimore throughout.
Verlander threw 112 pitches, 75 for strikes, and faced just one batter with a runner in scoring position. He struck out eight, walked two and went the distance, throwing all eight innings in the loss.
"I was just mixing up my pitches," Verlander said. "I guess you kind of just stick with what works and go on feel while you're out there. It was kind of one of those games where the first person to blink is going to lose. Unfortunately, it was me."
Tillman (5-1) outdueled Verlander on a night where both pitchers allowed almost nothing. The Baltimore right-hander struggled a little in the early going before settling into a rhythm.
He gave up two hits in the first inning and four in the first three innings but then retired 10 in a row, not allowing another hit until a seventh-inning double by Nick Castellanos, who was stranded.
Overall, Tillman allowed five hits and struck out seven with two walks in his fourth straight victory. He threw 107 pitches, 70 for strikes, and worked both sides of the plate effectively.
"Chris has got a good feel right now," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "He's got command of some pitches that he didn't a lot of times last year and it's created a different look."
Tillman now is using a slider more often and throwing different pitches at different times, keeping opposing hitters off-balance.
"I feel good right now," Tillman said. "I think mechanically I'm in a good place, and I'm able to execute all my pitches when I need to, not necessarily throwing fastballs in a fastball count, but I'm able to throw some other things that I'm not used to doing."
Darren O'Day took care of the eighth and Zach Britton came on in the ninth and posted his 10th save.
The Tigers (15-20) now have lost three in a row and 10 of their last 11.
Detroit missed on a few chances, going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. They scored five runs in Thursday's loss but could not hold a 5-0 lead before not coming up with any offense in this contest.
Manager Brad Ausmus just shook his head in frustration afterward, saying the Tigers are looking for a way to snap out of this skid.
"Well, we've got to do something," Ausmus said. "Yesterday the offense was actually pretty good. Today we couldn't muster anything, so it seems to be something every day that's not clicking and costs us the game."
