Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez couldn't catch a break in last Sunday's loss to the Chicago White Sox, but he made his own luck in Saturday night's 5-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics before an announced 29,862 at Camden Yards.

He held down his pitch count and worked through the eighth inning on the way to his second win of the year, which allowed the Orioles (17-12) to split the rain-makeup doubleheader and move back into sole possession of first place in the American League East. The Orioles lost the first game, 8-4.

Jimenez (2-3) allowed nine hits — including four by A's outfielder Josh Reddick — but spread them evenly through his performance and walked just one. It was quite a contrast to his previous start, in which he pitched well for four innings and then wilted under a shower of soft singles.

“I try to forget what happened in the past, because there is nothing you can do with it,” Jimenez said. “This is baseball. Every day is a new day, so you have to move on. If you want to be there for your team, you have to find a way to move on.”

This time, he worked quickly through the early innings and actually was treated to some margin for error when the struggling Orioles offense erupted for four runs in the third inning.

Caleb Joseph got the rally started with a one-out single and Manny Machado hit a long double before Hyun Soo Kim broke the scoreless tie with an RBI groundout. Adam Jones followed with a line-drive single to center for another run, and Chris Davis made it 4-0 with his eighth homer of the season.

“Toward the end of the first game, we started to turn it on a little bit,” Davis said. “You can't wait forever. Days like today, you've got to grind it out. We've been doing a pretty good job of having quality at-bats, but the last couple weeks we haven't gotten anything to fall or anything to build any momentum, but tonight we were able to do that.”

The Orioles added a fifth run in the fourth.

Though Jimenez appeared to be in control, Zach Britton came on to pitch a scoreless ninth and earned his seventh save.

In the first game, Orioles right-hander Mike Wright fell victim to a flurry of soft singles in an 8-4 loss, allowing five runs (four earned) on a career-high 10 hits — nine of them singles — over five-plus innings of work.

Seven of the first 12 Oakland batters Wright (1-3) faced reached base, including multiple opposite-field hits that the lefty-dominated A's lineup used to beat defensive shifts.

“But they're hits,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “You hit them where people don't play. … I thought they were trying to pull it and it just went off the end of the bat. It wasn't intentional, I'll tell you that.”

The Orioles provided little support for Wright as former Orioles left-hander Rich Hill (4-3) allowed just one run on two hits over 52/3 innings, stifling the offense with a slow, steady 12-to-6 curveball.

“It's one of those that comes out of the hand — I don't want to say loopy — but he's got real late finish,” Showalter said.

Through five mostly unspectacular starts, Wright has a 5.52 ERA this season.

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