Orioles try for first home series win vs. Tigers (Apr 29, 2018)
BALTIMORE -- If the Baltimore Orioles can win Sunday, they will record their first home series victory this season.
That is how bad the team has struggled in 2018.
The Orioles (7-20) lost their first four series at home and had a chance to win this one versus Detroit on Saturday. Baltimore won the series opener Friday but the Tigers beat the Orioles 9-5 on Saturday night, and the teams meet Sunday afternoon in the rubber match.
Kevin Gausman (1-2, 4.66 ERA) will start for the Orioles (7-20), and Daniel Norris (0-1, 4.85) goes for the Tigers (11-14).
Gausman has pitched better in the first part of this season than he has the last two years, when the right-hander picked it up in the second half. He has a 1-1 career record versus Detroit with a 3.95 ERA.
This will be his sixth start of the season, and Gausman has pitched well in four of his first five, but the Baltimore offense has not given him lots of support at times.
For Norris (0-1, 4.85), this is going to be his second start and fifth game of the year. He last pitched in nightcap of the Pittsburgh doubleheader Wednesday, giving up a run on two hits in two innings.
Norris is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA against the Orioles in his career.
The Orioles' inconsistent offense woke up in the last three games, scoring 16 runs total. Baltimore manager Buck Showalter liked how his team battled back from an early 7-0 deficit.
"(I'm) proud and commend our guys for getting the tying run to the plate and fighting our way all the way back," Showalter said. "But (trailing big early) creates not much margin for error."
The Tigers also had been struggling at the plate, coming into Saturday's game riding a 22-inning scoreless streak. They ended that in the first inning on a Nick Castellanos RBI single.
Castellanos now has a seven-game hitting streak and is hitting .452 during that time.
Miguel Cabrera carried the Tigers on offense in the win Saturday. He singled, hit a three-run homer and a two-run double in his first three at-bats and wound up going 3-for-4 with five RBIs.
He helped Detroit to the 7-0 lead in the fourth, which proved more than enough support for Liriano as the Tigers snapped a three-game losing streak.
Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire joked before the game that his team really was due, and they proved him right with that early outburst.
"Any time we've had a couple of tough ones, they bounce back and keep plugging away and that's what they did again," Gardenhire said. "In this ballpark, all kinds of stuff happens."
The Orioles made two moves before the game as outfielder Joey Rickard was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk with pitcher Tanner Scott optioned back there. Rickard started and went 0-for-2 with a run scored and a great catch before he ran into the wall in right.
