BOSTON — The Orioles' hot start is no doubt surprising, but even more incredible is the fact that they were able to win their first seven games of the season despite some short starts from their rotation.

The offense has been able to compensate, especially in a three-game series at Fenway Park in which the Orioles scored nine runs each of the first two nights.

But we know from experience that the Orioles can't depend on swatting multiple homers every night, so they will have to get better results from their starters.

They won their first seven games by putting up runs. They averaged 5.7 per game over that span and scored fewer than four just once before Wednesday night. The Orioles have 14 homers through eight games.

In the first games of the season, some abbreviated starts are expected. Pitchers are still on pitch limits as they're still being stretched out. In some cases, their starts were shortened because of long lapses between outings.

But through their first eight games, the Orioles have received a start of more than five innings just once. The rotation has a combined 4.19 ERA, which is still far better than last year's 4.53. The starters have shown an uncharacteristic ability to pile up strikeouts, averaging 9.3 per nine innings.

But five innings per night simply won't do, not if the Orioles are going to be contenders.

“You bet,” manager Buck Showalter said when asked whether he's going to need more innings from his starters. “It's not easy to do, pitch six, seven innings in the American League. I'm hoping when the weather warms up and guys start feeling the baseball a little bit more [it will improve], but we're all playing with the same conditions, same rules for the most part.”

Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez is the only Orioles starter to have gone beyond that five-inning mark — his seven-inning outing last Thursday night is the team's longest of the season — but he battled just to get through five innings Wednesday in the team's first loss of their short season, 4-2 to the Boston Red Sox.

“Yeah, of course we need to start” getting deeper, Jimenez said. “But at the beginning of the season it's really hard to say how deep you want to get into games. You are always trying to work to get better for the team. I mean, we won the first seven games but our offense was unbelievable. It's not going to happen like that every single night. So, we need to step up and do our job.”

Jimenez needed 28 pitches to get through the first inning. And his escaping the first without allowing a run — after walking two and allowing one hit and three stolen bases — was a minor miracle. He was the beneficiary of an unconventional 5-4-6 double play that erased two lead runners. After needing that many pitches to get through one inning, Jimenez was heading for a short start.

Showalter said Jimenez struggled to get a feel for his pitches in the Boston cold, and that he didn't get a grip on his breaking ball until his final inning. And that could have helped explain the biggest difference between Jimenez's first outing of the season and Wednesday's: his control. Jimenez had nine strikeouts and issued no walks in his 2016 debut, a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Twins.

Jimenez walked four batters Wednesday, including a leadoff walk to Brock Holt in the fourth that became the winning run when Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a one-out triple to right to break a 2-2 tie. Bradley scored when the next batter, Mookie Betts, grounded out.

“It did hurt me a lot,” Jimenez said. “I tried to throw the split but it just bounced 5 feet away out of my hand. I didn't feel it.”

Counting Wednesday, the Orioles bullpen is averaging more than four innings per game. That can work with the Orioles' opening-week schedule, which was full of weather delays and a postponement, which has allowed Showalter to keep his bullpen arms fresh, but it won't last long.

The Orioles travel to Texas for a four-game series against the Rangers and will play 17 games the next 18 days. They already had two days off while playing their first eight games, thanks in part to Saturday night's postponement.

The Orioles have three relievers who can give them length — right-handers Dylan Bundy and Tyler Wilson and left-hander T.J. McFarland — which is a rarity.

Bundy worked 21/3 innings Tuesday night and Wilson worked three scoreless innings in relief of Jimenez on Wednesday to preserve the bullpen.

“Pitching multiple innings out of the bullpen in the American League is really hard to do,” Showalter said. “Most of those guys are called starters and that's what we think Dylan and Tyler can do. But we knew we were going to need Tyler here long potentially tonight and it really put us back on our feet tonight going into Texas. And he'll tell me [today] that he's ready to go. But as long as we're able to get some multiple innings, we haven't had to overtax anybody yet because we've got seven guys pitching well.”

eencina@baltsun.com

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