Orioles move half-game ahead of Tigers

Baltimore — If the Baltimore Orioles can take care of business, they no longer have to worry about watching the scoreboard.

Trey Mancini hit his third homer in nine major league at-bats, Mark Trumbo connected for his league-leading 45th homer and Baltimore beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-1 on Saturday night.

The Orioles pulled a half-game ahead of the Tigers for the AL’s second wild card and trail the Toronto Blue Jays by 1 1/2 games for the top spot.

“We’ve got seven games left,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter. “We’ll see. It’s there for us.”

Baltimore left-hander Wade Miley (9-13) dominated his former team. He allowed one run and seven hits and tied a career high with 11 strikeouts over 8 2/3 innings. It was Miley’s second win in 10 starts since being acquired by the Orioles from Seattle on Aug. 1.

“We got off to a good start,” Miley said. “Put them on their heels a little early. I was just trying to get in, get quick outs and let those guys go back out there and hit. And we scored some runs.”

Mancini is the third player ever to homer in his first three starts, joining Arizona’s Carlos Quentin (2006) and Colorado’s Trevor Story (2016), according to STATS LLC.

Blown save costs Tigers sure victory

“It was great to get a win tonight, especially with Detroit falling earlier,” Mancini said. “We knew it was a big game going in.”

Miley retired 12 straight batters before allowing an infield single to Mitch Haniger in the fifth.

Mancini led off the fourth with a towering shot over the center-field wall off Robbie Ray. A single by Chris Davis added two more runs.

Trumbo’s solo homer made it 6-0 in the fifth.