BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Rick Helling pitched eight dominant innings and Jerry Hairston Jr. hit a two-run homer and turned two double plays behind him as the Baltimore Orioles posted a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Signed to a minor league contract on February 11, Helling (1-1) scattered four hits as Baltimore (9-9) moved to .500 for the first time in nearly three weeks before the smallest crowd ever at Camden Yards.
"He was tremendous," Baltimore acting manager Sam Perlozzo said. "We haven't had one of those games all year. His velocity was great tonight and he kept the ball down. If we keep getting pitching like that, we're going to win a few games."
With manager Mike Hargrove in Texas attending to his ailing mother, Perlozzo ran the Orioles and watched Helling have his longest outing since May 30 for Arizona.
"I'll take it," Helling said. "I was able to make the pitches when I had to tonight. This is the way I know I can pitch and help this club win."
The game attracted just 18,017, the smallest at Camden Yards since 18,470 attended a game with Cleveland on April 3. Camden Yards opened in 1992 and at one time routinely hosted sellout crowds.
Hairston lined a 1-1 pitch from Steve Parris (0-2) into the left field seats in the sixth for his second homer of the season, giving the Orioles a four-run lead. He also helped Helling at second base by erasing runners with double plays in the third and seventh.
Hairston hit .291 after the All-Star break last season and has followed the strong second half by hitting safely in 14 of his first 18 games. He had two hits to raise is average to .292.
"The biggest thing I want to do is hit the ball hard," Hairston said. "You're going to find a way to get the hits when you are aggressive. I'm going up there to hit the ball."
Helling retired the first six Devil Rays before Marlon Anderson singled. But Anderson was erased when Toby Hall bounced into the first of two double plays turned by Hairston.
Helling allowed singles to Rey Ordonez, Al Martin and George Lombard but did not allow a runner past second base. He began the eighth by throwing six straight balls, but got Hall to popout to Hairston and retired Ordonez and Crawford on groundouts.
"He was throwing a good cutter," Tampa Bay first baseman Aubrey Huff said. "He had it on today. He was mixing it with a curve, in and out. We didn't get any pitches that mistakes the past two games."
"Helling had good stuff," Hall added. "He threw a good game. He didn't let us get anything going."
Helling threw 111 pitches, struck out five and walked one en route to his eighth win in 11 career decisions against Tampa Bay.
Reliever Buddy Groom allowed a single to rookie Rocco Baldelli and hit Terry Shumpert before Damion Easley lined out to right field for the final out of the game.
The Orioles recorded their first shutout since July 2 at Anaheim, won for the seventh time in 10 games and captured consecutive series for the first time since July 2-7.
"We just want to move forward," Perlozzo said. "We got the key hits tonight and we didn't make any mistakes."
Parris unraveled in the fourth. He allowed a leadoff single to Jeff Conine and issued a four-pitch walk to Tony Batista with out out. Marty Cordova then lined Parris' first offering to left-center for a run-scoring single. Batista came home on Melvin Mora's slow grounder up the third-base line.
The Devil Rays concluded their nine-game, 11-day road trip at 2-7 and were outscored 48-31 while allowing 47 earned runs. They also went scoreless in the final 16 innings of the trip.
"Our bats have gone cold the last two games," manager Lou Piniella said. "When we had a few men on base, he pitched his way out of it."
Parris gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings.
