The Baltimore Orioles flew out West on their longest road trip of the season and returned home still battling Toronto and Boston for the right to claim the top spot in the A.L. East division race.
They began August with series wins against Texas and the White Sox then went West and dropped three of four to the Oakland A’s.
Baltimore then drove across the bridge to take on the San Francisco Giants (66-51) at AT&T Park. After splitting the first two games of the series, the Orioles won maybe their most exciting game of the season, 8-7 to clinch the series.
Baltimore was trailing 7-1 after six innings but chipped away and won the game on a two-out three-run homer in the top of the ninth by second baseman Jonathan Schoop. Closer Zach Britton came on to record his AL best 37th straight save.
With the victory, the Orioles, who have struggled away from Camden Yards, finished the road trip 5-5 and are in second place with a record of (66-51). They trail the Blue Jays (67-51) by a 1/2 game with the Red Sox two games back at (64-52).
Schoop finished the game 2-5 with three RBIs and catcher Matt Wieters was 5 for 5 with a triple and a double and was a homer short of the cycle. Mark Trumbo hit his ML leading 34th homer of the season. He leads the team with 85 RBIs.
Starter Wade Miley struggled giving up eight hits, seven runs, while walking two and striking out one in 4.1 innings of work. The bullpen came in and shut out the Giants and Britton finished off the stunning victory. Brad Brach picked up the win and is now (7-1) for the season.
The Birds won the first game of the series 5-2, flexing their muscles behind homers from Trumbo, who had a two-run shot and a solo home run from Chris Davis, his 24th of the season.
Starter Dylan Bundy improved to (6-3) and now has a 2.93 ERA. He allowed three hits, struck out three, walked two and allowed one run in 5.2 innings of work.
The bullpen allowed one run and Britton came in to record his 36th save of the season.
In the middle game of the series the Oriole’s bats were silenced by Giant pitcher Madison Bumgarner (11-7, 2.11 ERA) as they lost 6-2. He struck out eight and allowed three hits and three walks in seven innings of work. The Birds rallied for two runs in the ninth inning but it was not enough.
