Guthrie pitches seven scoreless innings to lead Orioles over Tigers

Jones, Guthrie lead Orioles over Tigers, 5-3

DETROIT — Adam Jones had four hits and Jeremy Guthrie pitched seven shutout innings to help the Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers 5-3 on Saturday night.

Brian Roberts and Felix Pie each added three hits for Baltimore, which clinched a win of the three-game series that concludes Sunday. Before this week, Baltimore had lost five straight at Comerica Park and 12 of its last 16.

Guthrie (10-13) gave up five hits — all in the first three innings — and one walk, striking out four. Guthrie has won his last three starts with an ERA of 0.81.

Koji Uehara pitched the ninth for his ninth save and second in as many days.

Max Scherzer (10-10) allowed four runs on a career-high 12 hits in six innings, snapping a five-start unbeaten streak. Scherzer has allowed four runs in each of his last two starts after not allowing more than two in the previous seven.

The teams combined for eight hits in the first three innings, but Scherzer and Guthrie were able to pitch out of the jams.

The Orioles got three more hits in the fourth, loading the bases with one out, but Scherzer struck out Josh Bell and Cesar Izturis to end the inning.

Baltimore finally broke the tie in the sixth. Jones led off with a double, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Pie’s two-base hit.

Bell followed with an infield single and Izturis made it 3-0 with a triple. Scherzer retired Roberts, but Ty Wigginton drove in Izturis with a long sacrifice fly.

With Guthrie out of the game, though, Detroit rallied for three runs off Matt Albers in the eighth. Don Kelly started the rally with an RBI single and Jhonny Peralta followed with a two-run double before Albers retired Brandon Inge with the tying run on second.

Pie finished the scoring with an RBI single off Brad Thomas in the ninth.

NOTES: The start of the game was delayed 27 minutes by rain. … There was an odd moment during Baltimore’s big sixth inning when fans in the top row of the upper deck behind third base started tossing beach balls to nearby fans. About 20 balls were distributed, many getting as far as the lower deck, before security guards were able to confiscate all of them. … Miguel Cabrera hit a sixth-inning grounder so hard that it deflected off Bell’s glove at third to Izturis 10 yards away quickly enough for an easy 5-6-3 putout. … Baltimore’s starters are 3-0 with five quality starts as Baltimore has gone 4-1 on its current roadtrip.