BALTIMORE – For a while now, Kevin Gausman has been viewed as the Baltimore Orioles’ ace of the future. The future may not be here yet, but it isn’t far away.

Gausman didn’t get the win against the New York Yankees on Thursday, but it wasn’t because he didn’t pitch well. The 25-year-old right-hander allowed three hits over eight scoreless innings. He struck out four, walked none and earned one well-deserved ovation: As he walked toward the first-base dugout after throwing his 97th and final pitch, a 96 mph heater that induced a weak comebacker from Didi Gregorius, the Camden Yards crowd rose to its feet in appreciation.

“He was something, wasn’t he?” Buck Showalter said after his team won 1-0 in 10 innings. “It was tough taking him out of the game.”

For what it’s worth, Gausman didn’t want to come out either.

“Obviously I wanted to go back out there,” said Gausman, who missed the first three weeks of the season because of shoulder soreness and hadn’t thrown more than six innings in either of his previous two starts. “I'm competitive. Maybe if we had a lead, it might have been a little different, but I haven't really gone to seven innings this year, so to get to eight was big.”

It was big in more ways than one. The eight-inning outing tied a career high for Gausman. It also marked the first time this season that a member of Baltimore’s rotation, which has had more than its fair share of problems, lasted longer than seven frames. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, it was also the first time an Orioles starter had tossed eight shutout innings against the Yanks since somebody named Jake Arrieta did it back in 2012. Most important, Gausman helped give the Orioles -- who fell out of first place on Wednesday, when they were shut out by a reeling New York team that had dropped six straight -- their first series win in two weeks. And he did it all while matching Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka zero for zero. Not bad for a guy who’s in his first full season as a starter.

“My confidence is growing,” said Gausman, who spent the past three years bouncing back and forth between Norfolk and Baltimore, bullpen and rotation. “Some guys get to the big leagues and already are comfortable. This is the first year I’ve really felt I know what I’m doing.”

He's crutching less on his high-90s cheese and leaning more on the soft stuff. Gausman’s gas consumption is down from 69 percent in 2015 to 63 percent this year, and he’s using more off-speed stuff to catch hitters off-guard. Apparently, it’s working: His line-drive rate has plummeted from 22 percent over his first three seasons to just 10 percent this year. Gausman is also looking more and more like the ace the Orioles envisioned when they drafted him with the fourth overall pick in 2012.

Even though he was listed as the No. 5 starter when pitchers and catchers reported to spring training, things have changed quickly. Veteran Miguel Gonzalez was released in March, free-agent acquisition Yovani Gallardo hit the disabled list in April and Ubaldo Jimenez continues to be inconsistent. Meanwhile, Gausman, who was far and away Baltimore’s best starter during Grapefruit League action, has looked better every time out, going five innings, then six, then eight. Granted, it’s only three starts, but his ERA now sits at 1.42, his WHIP at 0.68.

Opening Day starter Chris Tillman, who had a brutal 2015 but has been solid so far in 2016, is still the team’s nominal ace. But given Gausman’s pedigree and the way he has been performing, not to mention the current state of the Orioles rotation, it may just be a matter of time before there’s a changing of the guard.