The Baltimore Orioles continued their winning ways, taking two of three from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park and now have won 15 of their last 20 games.
As a result, the Orioles at (38-34) are in third place, two games behind the front-running Tampa Bay Rays who lead the American League East division with a record of (41-33).
After splitting the first two games of the series, Baltimore won the day-game series finale, 8-6. In the fourth inning they collected seven straight hits and batted around which led to an explosion of six runs highlighted by a two-run homer off the bat of catcher Matt Wieters.
But Boston would not go quietly, and down 6-1 came right back with three runs in their bottom half of the inning to make the score a bit closer at 6-4.
Baltimore added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings which made the difference as Boston scored two in the seventh to keep things interesting.
The O’s had seven extra base hits including six doubles, and were 6-13 with RISP. Steve Pearce clobbered two doubles and went 3-5. Shortstop J.J. Hardy also had a double as part of a 2-5 game with two RBIs.
O’s starter Miguel Gonzalez (6-4, 3.58 ERA) back from the disabled list, gave up four runs, struck out four and walked four in five innings of work.
The bullpen surrendered two runs but settled down and handed the ball off to closer Zach Britton who struck out one on his way to earning his 21st save of the year.
In the first game of the three-game series, Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez (6-3, 3.40 ERA) won his first game at Fenway Park as an Oriole and now has an Orioles-best three game winning streak.
Outfielder David Lough, in for injured starter Adam Jones, provided the offensive muscle, blasting a three-run home run which helped propel his team to a 6-4 victory.
Jimenez recorded eight strikeouts, allowed six hits, three runs and three walks in five innings of work. The bullpen tossed three shutout innings and closer Britton had to earn his 20th save. He allowed a two out double to Red Sox star Dustin Pedroia which made the score 6-4. He then got Boston slugger David Ortiz to line out to third baseman Manny Machado to end the game.
Machado, who has five straight multi-hit games, went 2-5 with an RBI. Hardy was 2-4 with two RBIs and Chris Parmelee was halfway to the cycle with a triple and a double.
The middle game of the series saw the Red Sox have a five run fifth on their way to a 5-1 victory. O’s starter Bud Norris was cruising for five innings but two errors and a two-run homer by Ortiz in the sixth inning was too much to overcome. The Orioles could only muster eight hits and one run against Boston pitching.
Norris surrendered seven hits, five runs and one walk while striking out three in five and 2/3 innings of work. So far he has had a tough year, and after winning 15 games in 2014 has a (2-6) record with a 6.70 ERA.
