Baltimore Orioles Daily: Birds ride Pedro Alvarez power surge to first home series win

The Orioles outscored the Tigers 16-12 in front of the home crowd.

The Baltimore Orioles triumphed over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday, securing their first home series win of the 2018 season. The O’s improved to 8-20, 12.5 games out of first place in the AL East.

This has been one of the worst Aprils in franchise history, but ignore the paltry win total for a second — the Orioles offense was rock-solid over the weekend, scoring between five and six runs in all three games. Sunday’s contest was no exception, as the Birds led for all nine innings and finished with a 5-3 win.

With one hit and two walks, Manny Machado was steady, but he didn’t score or drive in any runs. Instead, it was Trey Mancini who got the O’s on the board, clubbing a home run to left field in the first inning.

Take a look:

Mancini’s dinger was just a taste of what was to come. Pedro Alvarez, making his first start at third base in well over a year, leaned into his recent power surge and hit two homers: a two-run fly in the second inning and a solo shot in the eighth. Outfielder Craig Gentry knocked in the other run with a timely single in the sixth frame.

On the other side of the ball, the Orioles did just enough. Kevin Gausman pitched well in just under six innings, but struggling reliever Brad Brach surrendered back-to-back doubles in the seventh to Jeimer Candelario and Niko Goodrum, inflating his ERA to 5.73 in the process. Fortunately for the crowd at Camden Yards, Mychal Givens and Darren O’Day were able to close out the win.

It was a hard-fought weekend for Baltimore, and with the Angels next on the schedule, it’s only going to get harder. The first pitch of the road series is set for tomorrow at 10:07 p.m. ET. Until then, here’s what you may have missed yesterday:

Best of Birds Watcher from 4/29/18

Baltimore Orioles: 3 takeaways from the Birds’ first home series win of 2018: It took a while, but the Orioles finally gave the Camden crowd something to cheer about with a series win. Check out my main takeaways from the weekend, featuring Pedro Alvarez, Andrew Cashner and others.

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Best of Orioles news and analysis across the web from 4/29/18

The Orioles can use Pedro Alvarez as more than a platoon DH: Mark Trumbo is due back from the disabled list on Tuesday, and it could mean that one of the Birds’ surprise contributors will be left without regular plate appearances. Tyler Young of Camden Chat lays out his case for Pedro Alvarez to be in the everyday lineup.

Chris Davis sits again as Orioles seek adjustments to help him ‘get back to being a baseball player’:  Davis is signed to the largest contract in franchise history, but he’s slashing just .167/.257/.256 to start the season. In this article, the Baltimore Sun’s Jon Meoli quotes Buck Showalter as he tries to make sense of his struggling slugger.

Peter Schmuck’s Orioles grades for the week of April 23-29: The great Peter Schmuck of the Sun hands out his performance reviews for the last week. The bullpen earned a solid B, but what about everyone else?

Ohtani will pitch next weekend, DH this week: In a bit of Orioles-adjacent news, the Angels announced that two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani will not make his scheduled start on Tuesday due to a lingering ankle injury. He’ll still be available to DH against the Birds all week. Avery Yang of MLB.com has the lowdown.

Next: O's injury report: Trumbo set to return soon

How would you grade the Birds’ performance against the Tigers? Let us know on social media, and keep it here at Birds Watcher for more updates on the Baltimore Orioles.