Chris Tillman

ST. PETERSBURG -- Orioles manager Buck Showalter has selected right-hander Chris Tillman to start Wednesday night's pivotal regular season finale against Tampa Bay. The Orioles enter Wednesday one game back of the division-leading Yankees in the AL East. A win, combined with a New York loss, would force a tiebreaker for the division title on Thursday at Camden Yards. Even if the Yankees win Wednesday, an Orioles win would at least clinch a AL wild-card home game against either Texas or Oakland.

MINNEAPOLIS - Chris Tillman's supposed rebirth didn't hit a snag Monday night in Minnesota. It derailed in a horrible way. The 24-year-old right-hander joined the Orioles with optimism he could show he could be a consistent major-league starter. At Triple-A Norfolk, he refined his mechanics, made his delivery more fluid and above all, showed the Orioles he deserved an opportunity to prove what he could do in the club's starting rotation. A dominating Orioles season debut 11 days ago in Seattle provided hope - just what the organization needed with their major league rotation tattered with uncertainty.

There was plenty of motivation for Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman  on Monday night if he wanted to seize it. He was facing the Seattle Mariners, the team that traded him away in 2008; his Orioles are in a surprising pennant race; his fellow starters had just strung together three impressive outings and, in his last start, he got bashed for five runs in the first inning before settling in. Tillman, though, said none of that is fueling him....

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Right-hander Chris Tillman, who was scratched from his scheduled start on Sunday with abdomen soreness, said he's feeling better and is slated to throw off a full mound on Thursday in either a bullpen session or simulated game. Tillman received treatment and threw long toss and off flat ground on Tuesday's off day. ' It appears that Tillman will miss his next turn in the rotation, which would be Friday. He said he doesn't know the plans for him beyond Thursday. “I have no idea,” Tillman said.

Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman's superb performance against the Mariners Wednesday afternoon earned him another start after the All-Star break. So why did the Orioles immediately option Tillman to Double-A Bowie following their 4-2 win over Seattle? The main reason is because the Orioles want Tillman to continue pitching throughout next week's break instead of taking 10 days off. So he will start for Bowie -- he last pitched for the Baysox in 2008 -- on Monday. He will then get in extra days of rest before being activated to pitch a week from Sunday -- the first day he's eligible to return -- against the Tigers.

The Orioles' 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night gave them a 5-3 record eight games into this 11-game West Coast road trip. Perhaps even more important is that the win improved the Orioles' record to 9-3 when coming off a loss. That means that the Orioles have had back-to-back losses just three times this season. One of those times was this road trip, when they lost the final game against the Oakland Athletics and the first game against the Seattle Mariners. But the Orioles have avoided those consecutive loss slides that have foiled so many Orioles teams of the past.

Here are some nuggets from Buck Showalter's pregame news conference in Oakland: ** Chris Tillman (elbow) threw a successful bullpen on Thursday and will likely throw one more Saturday before taking the starting assignment Monday in Seattle. It will be Tillman's first outing since leaving the mound on Sept. 2 due to elbow ligament inflammation. The Orioles still list their starter for Sunday as TBA and Showalter said he hasn't made the decision yet - he wants to see who he will need in the bullpen during this series.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - In this Southern California landscape full of highways, Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman grew up just about 15 miles away from Angel Stadium. As a kid, he rooted for the Angels. And despite having 56 major league starts under his belt over parts of five big league seasons, Thursday night's against the Angels was his first one in a long drive back home. It was worth the wait. In Tillman's homecoming, he turned in one of his most dominating starts of his big league career, allowing just three hits over eight scoreless innings to lead the Orioles to a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the opener of this four-game series.

The Tampa Bay Rays arrived at Camden Yards with the reputation of being a team that swings early, but the past two nights they've forced the Orioles to beat them by throwing strikes. A night after the Orioles won the series opener despite getting just five innings from starter Jake Arrieta, right-hander Chris Tillman wasn't as lucky. Tillman battled control problems Wednesday in the Orioles' 6-2 loss to Tampa Bay in front of an announced 13,591. Tillman constantly worked from behind in the count - throwing 17 first-pitch balls to the 22 batters his faced - and lasted just five innings after throwing 93 pitches.

Chris Tillman made his minor league transitional start Monday at Double-A Bowie in between the two-hit gem against Seattle that he threw Wednesday and his next Orioles outing Sunday against the Detroit Tigers. It didn't go so well. Facing the Akron Aeros of the Eastern League, the Cleveland Indians' affiliate, Tillman lasted just 3 1/3 innings, giving up three earned runs on four hits, two walks and a wild pitch. He struck out two batters and threw a far-from-economic 72 pitches (40 for strikes)