HOUSTON -- Baltimore manager Buck Showalter was long gone by the time the Orioles piecemealed their way to victory with resilient pitching, savvy baserunning and timely hitting -- a combination of elements the team sorely needs as its broken roster slowly heals.

Center fielder Adam Jones belted a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning and the Orioles averted a four-game series sweep with a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday at Minute Maid Park.

Jones, who had two of the Orioles' four hits in their 3-1 loss on Wednesday night, smashed a 401-foot shot to left field off Astros right-hander Chad Qualls (1-3) to snap a 2-2 deadlock. Jones finished 3-for-4 and scored two runs to help Baltimore (24-29) halt a five-game skid.

"Efficient, we were efficient," Jones said. "Our pitching staff was efficient. There was multiple opportunities that they had with men on third base with less than two outs and I think we recorded five or six strikeouts with men on third base today.

"So it's a team effort. And if you're efficient and you do what you have to do and just handle your own and control what you can control, good things happen."

Orioles first baseman Steve Pearce added an RBI single in the sixth that scored Jones and erased the Astros' one-run lead. The only time Jones failed to reach base came in his first at-bat in the first inning when he struck out just before designated hitter Chris Davis delivered a run-scoring hit that plated Manny Machado and gave Baltimore a 1-0 lead.

The Astros (34-21) offered an uneven performance, from ace left-hander Dallas Keuchel to their defense and their late-inning offense.

Keuchel, coming off back-to-back complete games and consecutive American League Pitcher of the Month honors, struggled with consistency. He needed 108 pitches to complete six laborious innings, allowing two runs, six hits and one walk while striking out seven.

"I felt pretty lazy today," Keuchel said. "I was lucky enough to get through six. I know it could've been a lot worse than that, but I'm going to battle until I can't pitch anymore."

The second run against Keuchel resulted from a mental miscue by Astros shortstop Marwin Gonzalez and Jones' quick thinking.

Shifted to the right side of second base, Gonzalez fielded a ground ball off Davis' bat in the sixth while simultaneously approaching Jones as he dashed from first to second. Instead of applying the tag to Jones, who was trapped on the play, Gonzalez allowed Jones to stop and strangely opted to retire Davis at first. Jones advanced to second on the throw and scored when Pearce singled to left.

"We talk about it in the spring a lot, but some guys don't execute it," said Showalter, who was ejected in the second inning by plate umpire Brian Gorman for arguing balls and strikes. "If he (Jones) doesn't stop at second base, we don't score that other run. Those are the little things that baseball players do, and Adam is an extremely talented guy, but he's also a baseball player. He's a rock."

In the sixth and seventh innings, the Astros placed the potential go-ahead runner at third base with no outs yet failed to score.

Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen, who had a season-high nine strikeouts, escaped the first jam with strikeouts of Chris Carter and Luis Valbuena.

Right-handed reliever Darren O'Day (2-0) stranded two Astros in scoring position by fanning right fielder George Springer before second baseman Jose Altuve hit a harmless fly ball to Jones to close the seventh.

"We need to find a way to scratch a run across and get some momentum on our side," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "Some missed opportunities there and it's unfortunate because the game was there to win."

NOTES: Orioles RHP Bud Norris and C Matt Wieters completed rehab assignments on Wednesday with Triple-A Norfolk and wi