The Baltimore Orioles took two of three from the Oakland Athletics during the Mother’s Day weekend before an ecstatic crowd at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The Orioles have won every home series this year, their closest series loss was a split of a four game series against the Chicago White Sox.
After splitting the first two games of the series, the Orioles delivered some Mom’s Day fireworks. Dressed in pink with their bats warmed up on a rare sunny day this season, they exploded for six homers on their way to a series-clinching 11-3 rout of the A’s.
The home run parade was led by red-hot Manny Machado, who began the season with a 16-game hitting streak and has not slowed down. He went deep twice, including his second grand slam of the season in the eighth inning to put the game away. He finished the game with a career-best six RBIs.
Pedro Alvarez and Jonathan Schoop went back to back in the second inning and Mark Trumbo, who has been on base for a MLB best-tying 24 straight games and rookie Joey Rickard also sent souvenirs over the outfield fence. Trumbo and Machado are tied for the team lead with nine homers each.
Meanwhile, Oriole’s starter Chris Tillman rebounded from a shaky first inning where he surrendered three runs. He settled down and ended up recording seven strikeouts while giving up six hits and four walks in 6.1 innings of work. He improved his record to (4-1) and lowered his ERA to 3.05.
The first game of the series was rained out so a doubleheader was played on Saturday. The A’s won the opening game 8-4.
Bird’s starter Mike Wright was roughed up and allowed 10 hits, five runs while striking out three and walking two in five innings of work. Wright is trying to impress manager Buck Showalter and find a place in the rotation but this game was a setback. He now has record of (1-3) and a 5.83 ERA.
Oakland was ahead 8-1 going into the ninth inning. Baltimore rallied to score three runs in the bottom of the inning but the seven run deficit was too much to overcome.
In the nightcap of the doubleheader the Oriole’s won 5-2.
The offense was supplied by slugger Chris Davis who hit a two-run homer as part of a four run third inning for the Orioles.
Meanwhile, starter Ubaldo Jimenez, who has been inconsistent so far this season, had a quality start. He allowed nine hits, struck out six and walked one in eight innings of work. He now has a record of (2-3) while lowering his ERA to 4.54.
Closer Zach Britton came on in the ninth inning and recorded his seventh save, he is now seven for seven in save opportunities this season.
The Oriole’s now have a record of (18-12) and are battling the red-hot Boston Red Sox for first place in the A. L. East division.
