O’Day, Orioles thought they had strike 3

BALTIMORE — Orioles reliever Darren O’Day confirmed what his manager Buck Showalter suspected after the team’s 6-5 loss to the Tigers on Sunday afternoon. The righty submariner wasn’t going to blame first-base umpire Mark Wegner for the deciding back-to-back home runs that he allowed to Detroit, but he was certainly angry with him.

Holding a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning, O’Day came out of the bullpen, struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ian Kinsler, and thought he retired the side — he even walked toward the O’s dugout — on a slider to J.D. Martinez, who fished and appeared unable to check his swing. Home-plate umpire Jeff Kellogg deferred to Wegner, who believed Martinez held up.

The righty slugger roped the next fastball into left-center field to tie the game. Miguel Cabrera did the same to O’Day on the very next pitch.

“I thought I got him to swing at it, and I did,” said O’Day, who gave credit to Kellogg for letting Wegner be the ultimate arbiter down at first base. “[The umps] have a tough job. It’s a judgment call, but that was pretty egregious.

“I’ll take the loss, I blew it. The pitch to Cabrera was especially bad. It’s not like me. … Games like that, assuming Zach [Britton] does what he normally does in the ninth inning, that’s a win and a series sweep against a really good team. It cost us.”

The Orioles’ bullpen …

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