The battling Baltimore Orioles swept the Oakland Athletics at Oriole Park at Camden Yards as they look to keep pace in the race for a playoff berth in October.
It was the first four game sweep for Baltimore this season and the first since June 30-July 3, 2014 against the Texas Rangers. The Orioles are now (61-56) and are four games behind the first place New York Yankees in the race for the American League East crown. They are the second Wild Card team and would join the Toronto Blue Jays in a one game playoff if the season ended today.
After winning the first three games of the series, the Birds were facing Oakland ace Sonny Gray who had a 12-4 record and an American League best 2.06 ERA.
His team gave him a 1-0 lead on a solo homer off Oriole starter Chris Tillman (9-7, 4.54 ERA) but newly arrived catcher/Designated hitter Steve Clevenger came to the rescue and clocked a three-run homer off Gray to give his team a 3-1 lead. Baltimore would go on to win 4-2 and would continue to keep Gray winless in Baltimore.
Darren O’Day pitched a scoreless eighth and closer Zach Britton came on to record his 29th save. Tillman went seven innings, striking out and walking three Oakland hitters.
The first two games of the series were back-to-back walk-off wins, the first time that has happened in 17 years.
In game one third baseman Manny Machado smashed a two-run homer in the 13th inning to give the Birds a feel-good 8-6 victory.
It was a big win because the Birds were coming off of a disappointing 4-5 West Coast road trip which including being no-hit in Seattle.
Outfielder Adam Jones went 3-5 with four RBIs and Chris Davis went 3-6 with two RBIs. Jones smashed his 20th homer and Davis hit his team-leading 32nd homer.
The game appeared to be won in regulation but Britton gave up two runs in the ninth inning to send the game into extra innings.
O’s starter Ulbaldo Jimenez struck out six and allowed four runs and two walks in five innings of work. The bullpen held it together until Britton, who had some bad luck when a couple of soft infield hits led to the tying runs.
The Baltimore game two walk-off hero was slugger Davis who hit his second homer of the game in the bottom off the ninth inning to give his team an exciting 4-3 win. Davis finished the game 2-4 with three RBIs while clocking homers number 33 and 34. He also leads the American League with 88 RBIs.
Davis has been on a hitting rampage and is slugging .333 with 15 homers and 36 RBIs since the All-Star break.
Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez allowed six hits, struck out five and surrendered three runs and three walks in seven innings of work. Reliever O’Day pitched a scoreless eighth and Britton came in and earned his third win of the year.
The third game of the series was a slaughter as the Orioles tied a club record with 26 hits, which were also the most given up in Oakland’s franchise history since 1955. The score was a laugher as the Orioles won 18-2.
Jones had two homers, and now has 22, Gerardo Parra went 5-6 and Caleb Joseph had a career-high four RBIs. Eight Oriole starters had at least two hits. A nine-run fifth inning put the game away and gave the Orioles a 15-2 lead.
Oriole’s starter Wei-Yin Chen (7-6, 3,20 ERA) gave up eight hits, had seven strikeouts and allowed two runs and no walks in six innings of work.
