ked up a tremendous appreciation for the 59-year-old j

DETROIT -- The Baltimore Orioles caught Jordan Zimmermann at the perfect time.Saturday, in Zimmermanns first start off the disabled list, the Orioles hit three homers before chasing him in the second inning and moved back ahead of the Detroit Tigers in the AL wild-card race with an 11-3 rout.Thats a very, very good pitcher and we happened to catch him on an off night, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. I certainly wouldnt want to be facing him in his next start.Adam Jones and Chris Davis homered in the first inning off Zimmermannn (9-6), and Matt Wieters connected in the second and sixth innings.At this point in the season, with us in the race, every win is huge, Wieters said. Obviously, it feels good to hit two homers tonight, but only because they came in a win. If we had lost, it wouldnt have mattered.Baltimore is two games behind first-place Boston in the tightly bunched AL East and one game back of wild-card leader Toronto. The Orioles are one game ahead of the Tigers and New York Yankees for the second wild card.Ubaldo Jimenez (7-11) allowed two runs, four hits and three walks in seven innings.The guys gave me a great start, and I just wanted to get us deep into the game with that lead, he said. My sinker was really good tonight, and I was able to throw all the breaking pitches whenever I needed them.Zimmermannn, bothered by a neck injury, has been on the disabled list three times and was making his first big league start since Aug. 4 and his second since June 30. He allowed six runs and four hits -- including three homers -- and two walks while getting three outs. He threw 42 pitches and faced 10 batters.I was terrible tonight, so this loss is on me, he said. I felt fine physically, but I couldnt locate any of my pitches. I was trying to hit the corner with my fastball, and Id miss five inches outside or five inches over the plate.Between his stints on the disabled list, Zimmermannn has an 8.84 ERA in eight starts since the beginning of June. With the Tigers deep in the race, it isnt clear what his immediate future holds.Were going to weigh a number of factors, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said when asked if Zimmermannn will remain in the rotation. We need to win games, and well decide how we think we can best do that.After an 11-minute rain delay at the start, Adam Jones hit Zimmermannns first pitch on a high arc into the Tigers bullpen in left. After Manny Machado drew a one-out walk, Chris Davis launched a 2-0 fastball deep into the Baltimore bullpen in center.J.D. Martinezs RBI single cut the gap to 3-1 in the bottom half, when Jimenez retired Justin Upton on a grounder to strand runners at the corners.When I got into trouble, Matt came out there and calmed things down, Jimenez said. He just kept calling for all the right pitches and I just had to throw them.Wieters hit a two-run homer in the second, when Blaine Hardy threw a run-scoring wild pitch. Wieters hit a three-run homer off Buck Farmer in the sixth.Ausmus responded by making eight lineup changes for the seventh, changing every position but catcher.TRAINERS ROOMOrioles: Davis said he plans to keep playing despite a sore left hand that has bothered him for most of the season. Orioles manager Buck Showalter has tried to rest his first baseman by taking him out of lopsided games, and replaced him with Drew Stubbs in the seventh on Saturday..LOOK OUTTigers third-base coach Dave Clark was uninjured after being hit on his rear by Erick Aybars hard one-hopper in the fourth inning. Clark, who stands closer to the plate than most third-base coaches, laughed off the incident. Clark took a glancing blow in the eighth inning from a Steven Moya grounder as he tried to pirouette out of the way.In all the years Ive been in this game, I have never seen a third-base coach get hit twice in the same night, Showalter said. Baseball will never cease to surprise you.UP NEXTTigers ace Justin Verlander (14-7, 3.28) faces Baltimores Chris Tillman (15-5, 3.76) in Sundays series finale. Tillman is coming off the disabled list, while Verlander is 6-1 with a 2.09 ERA in his last 11 games, posting a quality start each time. Jeff Mathis Jersey .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres have recalled forward Kevin Porter and defenceman Chad Ruhwedel from the minors as part of a five-player roster shuffle made by the NHLs worst team. Randy Johnson Jersey . Hey!" The lower tier of the School End of Queens Park Rangers Loftus Road was packed solid with a very festive-sounding Chelsea choral section in this particular part of South Africa Road London, W12. http://www.cheapdiamondbacksjerseys.com/ . Thousands of Southern California fans enveloped the Trojans to celebrate an improbable win secured by an interim coach, an inconsistent kicker and a thin defence that wouldnt break. Clay Buchholz Jersey .H. -- Matt Kenseth made it 2 for 2 in the Chase, holding off teammate Kyle Busch to win Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Cheap Diamondbacks Jerseys . "Hes going to have hip surgery on Jan. 7, and hell be expected to rehabilitate for four to six months beyond that," Canucks general manager Mike Gillis said Friday in an interview. ASHBURN, Va. -- When the Washington Redskins navigated the difficult process of replacing Robert Griffin III with Kirk Cousins as their starting quarterback a year ago, Matt Cavanaugh was the man in the middle of it.Griffin, Cousins and veteran Colt McCoy all wanted to start. Only one could, so Cavanaugh had heart-to-heart conversations about the situation.Cousins threw for 4,166 yards and 26 touchdowns and led the Redskins to the NFC East title. Afterward, McCoy called Cavanaugh the team MVP for his stability and oversight.His ability to be the voice in our room, to take away the distractions, the things that went on and all that and for him to help Kirk the way that he did and silence a lot of things that couldve got out or went wrong, Cav did a great job, McCoy said. Cav really deserves a lot of credit for the way Kirk played and the way that our room was handled throughout the year.Cavanaugh played 13 seasons in the NFL and has coached at the pro and college levels for more than two decades. After helping Cousins establish himself, Cavanaugh goes into his second season as Redskins quarterbacks coach with a very different challenge.In Cousins the unquestioned starter, McCoy the entrenched backup and rookie Nate Sudfeld the long-term project, Cavanaugh must tailor his message to three very different quarterbacks. Thats pretty much a wheelhouse for Cavanaugh, who has made a career of being a quarterback whisperer.He played with Hall of Famers, played in multiple organizations, won Super Bowls, Cousins said. Hes coached Pro Bowlers, hes coached Hall of Famers and he knows what it looks like.Cavanaugh was offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl-winning Baltimore Ravens in 2000 with Trent Dilfer, and he coached Steve Young with the San Francisco 49ers in 1996. Dealing with the Griffin-Cousins-McCoy quarterback triangle was just another chapter.Ive been in those positions personally, so for me it wasnt a huge deal, Cavanaugh said. Maybe they relied on me at times because they know that I did play and that I probably experienced what theyre going through and it was easier to relate some situations that I had.Its that same experience that makes Cavanaugh qualified to help Cousins prove he deserves a long-term deal, keep McCoy prepared on a moments notice and coach up Sudfeld for the years ahead. Cavanaugh can pull from his timee as a New England Patriots rookie and young starter and as Joe Montanas backup.ddddddddddddCousins developed into a leader as the franchise quarterback at 28, and his ascent with a career year is thanks in part to Cavanaughs tutelage.Hes helped simplify the game for me coaching me through my reads and trying to reduce the amount of clutter in my head as I read a defense, Cousins said.McCoy didnt start until a meaningless Week 17 game at Dallas last season, but he said Cavanaugh pushed him to stay sharp. Without practice snaps, McCoy leaned on Cavanaugh for details and philosophy.Thats what coach Jay Gruden and prodigious offensive coordinator Sean McVay count on Cavanaugh for.I cant say enough about him, what a great job hes done as far as leading that room, giving those guys a plan, helping develop the fundamentals and the mechanics of what were trying to get done at that position, McVay said.Already, Cavanaugh has devoted a lot of his time to Sudfeld, a sixth-round pick out of Indiana who has prototypical size but is raw at age 22. Sudfeld glowed about Cavanaugh months ago at rookie minicamp and has picked up a tremendous appreciation for the 59-year-old journeyman coach.He was very successful as a player so he automatically has that credibility and he can really relate to us, Sudfeld said. Theres some things where hes like, `I know how its difficult, youve just got to work through it on a certain read or a throw. Its really good to have that insight.Cavanaugh has been coaching since joining his alma mater, Pittsburgh, in 1992, yet he still feels like a developmental prospect. On a quarterback-friendly staff, the Youngstown, Ohio, native considers himself a student.I dont care how long youve been doing it, Ive been doing it for a while -- you come in and you feel a little behind, Cavanaugh said. Youre not quite sure of how everythings supposed to sound and youre trying to visualize a play when its called and in a split-second have an answer for the quarterback when he makes a decision. So Im feeling more comfortable with that and Ive got two great teachers in Jay and Sean, who know this system extremely well. Im here to learn, too.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '