SAN DIEGO — Right-hander Yovani Gallardo's best performance of the season on the mound Wednesday afternoon might have been overshadowed by his contributions at the plate in the Orioles' 12-6 win over the San Diego Padres.
Gallardo (3-1) contributed his first quality start of the season, holding a light-hitting Padres club to three runs over six innings. Gallardo retired 13 of the first 15 batters he faced, not allowing a hit until Alex Dickerson's one-out single in the fifth.
"He's throwing the ball through the target instead of to it," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "You can see more confidence in his fastball and location. That was one of the highlights of the day to me. Did a couple tours of the bases that probably caught up with him in the sixth. That's not the first time he had two hits. He can swing the bat."
Gallardo, who developed the reputation for being one of the best hitting pitchers in baseball while playing seven seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, also had his eighth career multihit game Wednesday, going 2-for-3 with two singles and a run scored in the win.
"It was good," Gallardo said. "I enjoy doing it. Anytime I get the opportunity to do something like that and help myself out and help the team out, I'm definitely going to do whatever I can. It's just one of those things [where] you just try to put the ball in play and that's what happened today. Running the bases out there was definitely different, but it was fun."
Gallardo ranks second among active pitchers with 12 homers, and despite only getting to hit in interleague games in National League parks over the past two years, he is 4-for-7 at the plate as an American League pitcher.
"Today, Gallardo's the one who's hitting," center fielder Adam Jones said. "He got two knocks. I think he hit the hardest ball of the day, his [fifth-inning] single to left."
Gallardo roped a single to left in his second at-bat off Padres starter Christian Friedrich, then rounded the bases on Jonathan Schoop's double down the left-field line but had to retreat to third base when it skipped into the stands. He scored two batters later on Friedrich's throwing error to first. Gallardo hit a broken-bat bloop single to shallow right-center off left-hander Brad Hand in the sixth for his second hit of the day.
"Being out there on the bases, you've got to be ready for anything," Gallardo said. "Schoopy hit that one down the line when I was on first. It's fun and it's an exciting group, and we've seen the things that they're capable of doing and putting up runs throughout the game. It's just one of those things. I give up three runs in the sixth inning and they come back and get them back and get more. It's fun and it's exciting for us to see as a staff and like I've always said, it's just giving them a chance to swing the bat and see what they can do and they showed it."
Around the horn: The Orioles must make two roster moves in order to activate right-hander Vance Worley and catcher Caleb Joseph on Thursday. The team will likely option backup catcher Francisco Pena to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for Joseph. The Orioles would have to make a corresponding bullpen move to activate Worley, and right-hander Oliver Drake, who pitched each of the past two games and allowed six runs over 2 1/3 innings, could be the most likely to go. ... Gallardo's 105 career wins give him sole possession of third place on the all-time wins list among Mexican-born pitchers. He trails only Fernando Valenzuela (173) and Esteban Loaiza (126). … Major League Baseball took away a hit from outfielder Hyun Soo Kim, making a scoring change on his first-inning single against the Toronto Blue Jays on June 17 and changing it to an error on first baseman Justin Smoak. … Showalter had no update on right-hander Darren O'Day's progress following an iffy bullpen session Tuesday that had Showalter wondering if O'Day (right hamstring strain), would need another bullpen session before progressing to simulated games.
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