Orioles manager Buck Showalter talked before Saturday night's game about the kinship the Orioles' starters have developed, and that includes a friendly competition with each other.
Making his final start of the season, Brian Matusz certainly wanted to avoid getting shown up by Chris Tillman and Jeremy Guthrie, both of whom pitched brilliantly in helping the Orioles sweep Friday's doubleheader. He also wanted to add one more positive chapter to a mostly impressive rookie season that ended in the best possible manner.
Matusz allowed just one run in six innings to win his sixth straight decision, and Nick Markakis homered off an otherwise sharp Armando Galarraga as the Orioles defeated the Detroit Tigers, 2-1, to take their fourth straight victory in front of an announced 35,332 at Camden Yards.
The Orioles (66-95) will go for the four-game sweep this afternoon in their final game of the season.
Matusz allowed just one run, on Brandon Inge's solo homer, two hits and two walks while striking out nine. He finished the season 10-12 with a 4.30 ERA, which included a 1.57 ERA in his final eight starts. He also allowed just two earned runs in his final three starts spanning 18 innings.
Michael Gonzalez pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out two of the three hitters that he faced. Jim Johnson pitched a perfect eighth, getting the help of two strong defensive plays, one by Markakis in right field and one by shortstop Cesar Izturis.
Koji Uehara allowed a leadoff single in the ninth before retiring the next three batters to pick up his 13th save.
The Tigers managed just three hits, the fourth time in the past six games Orioles pitchers have surrendered four hits or less.
Galarraga retired the first 10 Orioles before Markakis drove his 1-1 pitch in the fourth inning onto the flag court in right field. It was Markakis' 12th homer of the season and his second in as many games.
The Orioles then took a 2-1 lead in the fifth, as Felix Pie, who got the start in center field in place of Adam Jones, doubled off the scoreboard in right field. Ty Wigginton grounded out to second to move Pie up a base, and then Matt Wieters drove in the run with a sacrifice fly to deep center. Wieters drove Tigers rookie center fielder Austin Jackson all the way back to the center field wall, but he had enough room to make the catch.
Matusz entered last night's start on the best run of his young career. In his previous seven starts, he was 5-0 with a 1.48 ERA. During those outings, he had permitted only 23 runners to reach second base and seven of those were on Sept. 6 against the New York Yankees.
He had great stuff again Saturday night, but the Tigers made him work early, forcing him to throw 27 pitches in the first inning. Inge put the Tigers on the board by slamming a hanging 2-2 curveball into the left-field seats. The solo homer was Inge's 12th of the season.
Matusz was mostly in control from there, retiring 12 of the next 14 batters. The only exceptions were a one-out walk to Jackson in the third and a two-out walk to Inge in the fourth.
Ryan Raburn's one-out single in the sixth was the Tigers' first hit off Matusz since Inge's home run. But Raburn was stranded when Matusz got Jhonny Peralta and Casper Wells ( Towson University) to fly out.
He then didn't come back out for the seventh with his pitch count at 100.
jeff.zrebiec@baltsun.com