It wasn't complicated. The Orioles needed to change the subject after a discouraging weekend against the Houston Astros, and they would need good pitching and timely hitting to do that against the first-place Washington Nationals.
Rookie Dylan Bundy supplied the solid start and the O's flexed just enough muscle to open the home-and-home interleague series with a 4-3 victory over the Nats before 31,660 at Camden Yards.
Bundy had to feel his way around for a few innings, but he allowed just two runs on three hits over six innings to improve his record to 7-4 and drop his ERA to 3.33. The game turned his way in a three-run fourth inning that featured a game-tying RBI double by Chris Davis and a two-run home run by Mark Trumbo, who extended his major league lead with his 38th homer of the season.
Manager Buck Showalter isn't one to read too much into any single game, but he clearly was pleased with the way his club bounced back from the weekend's indignities to beat a first-place team with a solid all-around performance.
"It's just a reminder that we can play that kind of baseball,'' Showalter said, "and we've been playing it for most of the year, if we can just stay engaged in it and not get on the other side of the snowball."
Trumbo, who has hit seven home runs over the past 11 games to extend his major league lead in that department, also took note of the intensity both on the field and in the stands for the first of four games against the Orioles' regional interleague rival.
"It was a whole lot of fun,'' Trumbo said. "We had to battle. We had to fight for it. This wasn't one of those that came easy, but the execution for us was real important and we got it done."
The Orioles haven't gotten a lot of breaks over the past week, but they appeared to get a big one Monday when the Nationals put 15-game winner Stephen Strasburg on the disabled list with a sore elbow.
Strasburg originally was scheduled to pitch Monday night, but the Nats had to turn to rookie A.J. Cole, who was making his second major league start.
He actually pitched well, working seven innings and allowing just five hits, but two of them were home runs and three of them came with no one out in the fourth inning, when Manny Machado and Davis doubled ahead of Trumbo's big blast.
The late innings were tense. Reliever Mychal Givens took over for Bundy in the seventh and immediately gave up a home run to Danny Espinoza to cut the Orioles' lead to a run. Left-hander Donnie Hart allowed a leadoff double in the eighth, but teamed up with Brad Brach to work out of trouble and turn the game over to closer Zach Britton.
Britton ended any suspense by making short work of the Nats in the ninth to record his 38th save in as many opportunities. He had pitched to just one batter over the past eight days and admitted to feeling rusty, but it wasn't obvious to anyone but himself.
"What Zach has been doing all year, that's hard,'' Showalter said. "That's a tough club over there to go through and win a one-run game against."
The series resumes Tuesday night with Kevin Gausman taking the mound for the Orioles against right-hander Reynaldo Lopez.
Schoop has 20-30 vision: Jonathan Schoop hit his 20th home run in the third inning and already has 31 doubles this season. He joins Manny Machado (28 HR, 36 doubles) as the only 20-30 guys in the Orioles lineup. At his current pace, Schoop would finish the season with 26 homers and 41 doubles. Machado is on pace for 37 homers and 47 doubles.
Trumbo's homer streak: When Trumbo added to his major league-leading home run total on Monday night, he also extended an odd streak. His last seven hits, dating back to Aug. 11, have cleared the fences. While we're on the subject of full-season projections, Trumbo is on pace to hit 50 HR and drive in 120 runs.
First batter funk: Bundy joined a staff-wide epidemic of first-batter inefficiency Monday night when he allowed the leadoff man to reach base in each of the first four innings. Through that point, opposing leadoff hitters had reached base in 22 of the 35 innings, dating back to the start of Friday night's game against the Astros. Two of those first four leadoff baserunners scored, but Bundy pitched efficiently after that and retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced.