Bowie's Davies gets back on winning track

The transition to the Eastern League may not have gone as smoothly as Zach Davies would have liked, but his strongest start of the year at least has him pointing in the right direction again.

Back on a regular throwing schedule and with an early-season arm injury behind him, the No. 12 Orioles prospect feels confident that Monday's gem represents the start of a positive second half in his first trip across the Double-A landscape.

Davies allowed two hits while striking out three batters over six scoreless innings in the Bowie Baysox's 3-2 win over the host Trenton Thunder.

"It was good. I executed pitches," said Davies, who throws four- and two-seam fastballs, a curveball and a changeup. "I made some quality pitches and had a great defense behind me that helped me get through six innings."

The 21-year-old walked two batters and threw 59 of 96 pitches for strikes in lowering his ERA to 5.13.

He surrendered a hit in the first inning to Trenton's leadoff hitter Mason Williams, who swiped second base and advanced to third on Ben Gamel's groundout. But he retired Rob Segedin and induced an inning-ending comebacker off the bat of Gary Sanchez to keep the hosts off the board.

That was as close as anyone came to scoring against the right-hander, selected by the Orioles in the 26th round of the 2011 Draft.

"My team put me up, so it was good not to give that run right back," Davies said of getting out of the first inning unscathed.

Davies then retired 11 of 12 batters before Peter O'Brien's two-out single to left field in the fourth, and he set down the final seven batters in order after erasing a fifth-inning walk with a 5-4-3 double play.

The victory is the Arizona native's first in seven appearances and it snaps a string of three consecutive losses and four in his previous five games. He earned the win in his first start of the season at home to Harrisburg on April 6, but he then allowed 21 runs over his next 22 1/3 innings.

"I can't put a label on it," Davies said of his struggles. "In the past couple outings, I threw some bad pitches and got hurt with them. Tonight, I felt like I was getting soft contact and I was able to move the ball in and out and keep hitters off balance."

Adding to, or possibly a contributing factor of, his difficulties were the six weeks he spent on the sidelines. He was hit by a line drive on his throwing arm in the second game of the season against Akron, and he subsequently missed almost two weeks while it healed.

After returning to the mound, Davies made just two more starts before being shut down for another month with a shoulder impingement. After showing he could throw bullpens and side sessions, he traveled to Florida to make two starts in extended spring training before returning to the Baysox at the end of May.

"You just have to know that these things are always going to happen. There will be ups and downs, but you have to get through it," he said. "When you find it, you find it."

Bowie's Anthony Vasquez allowed two runs over two-plus innings of relief and Oliver Drake worked around a hit and a walk in the ninth to earn his 14th save of the season.

First baseman Christian Walker reached base three times and plated two runs and the top three batters in the Bowie lineup combined for six hits and three runs to give the Baysox enough run support to back Davies' effort.

Trenton's Jairo Heredia (2-1) gave up one run on five hits and a walk while striking out four batters over three innings.