Jimenez, O's blank Indians in twin-bill opener

BALTIMORE -- Backed by eight scoreless innings from Ubaldo Jimenez, the Orioles rolled to a 4-0 win over the Indians in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Jimenez was dominant against the Indians, striking out seven and not issuing a walk. He allowed just four hits -- two of which came in the sixth inning to represent the biggest jam the righty had all day.

"It is fun," Jimenez said of helping the Orioles jockey for a spot atop the American League East. "That's why you come to the stadium every day, to be part of that."

Baltimore scored four runs against Indians starter Trevor Bauer over seven innings, including homers by Jimmy Paredes and Manny Machado. Chris Davis added an RBI double in the sixth.

Video: CLE@BAL: Davis' gapper scores Paredes in the 6th

"Nobody likes playing doubleheaders. A lot of people if they were honest would tell you when they got out of bed they'd take a split and move on, but I'm not going to go there," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "We've got a chance now to roll the dice in the second one."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Jimenez shines: Facing his former club, Jimenez was masterful. The righty picked up his fourth consecutive win in holding the Tribe scoreless over eight innings and looked in complete control, exiting to an ovation from the home crowd. Jimenez has a staff-leading seven wins and has won his past four starts. More >

"The command of the fastball," he said of what stands out in his first-half success. "That's the number one thing for every starter. Especially for me, throughout my career it's been difficult to have good mechanics and command the fastball. I've had to deal with a lot of walks, a lot of command issues. That's the thing I'm really proud of."

Video: CLE@BAL: Jimenez blanks Tribe over eight innings

Paredes getting hot again: After drawing his first walk of the season, Paredes delivered a two-run homer to put the O's on the board and reached in all four plate appearances. He doubled in the sixth and is batting .565 (13-for-23) with two homers, six RBIs and seven runs scored over his last six games.

"Jimmy's putting a lot of good swings on any mistake," Showalter said. "He's aggressive. He walked twice today, too. When you see that combination, he's going to be a real weapon for us."

Video: CLE@BAL: Paredes clubs a no-doubter to right-center

Bauer good, not great: Bauer had a solid outing, going seven innings, allowing five hits, four runs, a walk and one hit-by-pitch while striking out five on Sunday. The righty was rolling in the beginning of the game, facing just one batter over the minimum through two, but gave up a two-run home run to Paredes in the third. His only other trouble came in the sixth when he gave up a leadoff homer to Machado, and doubles to Paredes and Davis, which gave the Orioles a 4-0 lead. More >

"In a lot of ways a much better outing," Bauer said. "In a lot of ways it was a pretty [bad] outing too. It's tough. They hit eight or nine balls hard. Usually I give up eight or nine hard-hit balls in the course of two or three games."

Video: CLE@BAL: Bauer fans Parmelee to end the 4th

Indians bats struggle: Cleveland was shut out for the fifth time this season, and recorded four hits, just one more than their season-low of three. The team as a whole has been struggling at the plate in June, recording just 66 runs after collecting 146 in May.

"We can get hits. There is no magic formula," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "You have to keep grinding. It would be nice to play with the lead. It allows you to a few things more things and relax. You just have to keep grinding. We need to make it turn. Sometimes it seems hard. We talk about it all the time that you have to play through frustration and not let it beat you up and figure out a way to get ahead of it."

Video: CLE@BAL: Lindor tags Paredes, fires to first for two

QUOTABLE
"We have our ups and downs. We started off real slow. We had players injured. We're just getting back into it. Everybody's starting to get healthy. It's good to have everybody back on the field, giving their all. It's just the midway point. We've got to keep playing baseball. There's a lot more baseball going ahead. There's a lot more slumps. There's a lot more games lost coming ahead. We've got to stay focused and just stay with the mindset that we have, which is to make the playoffs and go on forward." -- Machado, on the Orioles winning six of their last seven

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Sunday's Game 1 victory marked the 5,000th in club history for the Orioles, who moved to Baltimore in 1954.

"I heard it just as we were finishing up," Showalter said of the milestone. "We don't take a backseat to many organizations. In my mind we don't take a backseat to any of them. We've got plenty of stats and plenty of milestones and today was one of them."

Video: CLE@BAL: Roe gets out for O's 5,000th franchise win

WHAT'S NEXT
Indians: Toru Murata will make his Major League debut in the second game of tonight's doubleheader at 7:05 p.m. ET.

Orioles: Chris Tillman (5-7, 6.22 ERA) will start Sunday's second game of the doubleheader at 7:05 p.m. ET. Tillman has not lost since May 31, but did struggle in his last outing on June 21 at Toronto, allowing six runs on six hits over 1 1/3 innings.

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