Caleb Joseph homers for the fifth game in a row as O's top Cardinals

Caleb Joseph homered for the fifth game in a row. Two of his teammates also connected as the Orioles home run barrage continued this afternoon. The Orioles hit three more longballs today in an 10-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that gives them their seventh consecutive series win. A crowd of 40,894 was on hand at Camden Yards. The Orioles are a season-high 18 games over .500 at 67-49 and have opened a six-game lead over both New York and Toronto atop the American League East. Right after a Delmon Young RBI double pulled the O's within 2-1 of St. Louis in the second inning, Joseph connected for a two-run shot on his first pitch from John Lackey. Joseph is the first catcher and rookie in Orioles history to homer in five consecutive games. The team record is six in a row held by Reggie Jackson in 1976 and Chris Davis in 2012. Joseph is the 15th major league catcher to homer in five straight games since 1914. It was his eighth homer this year. Over his last five games, Joseph is 8-for-18 with a double, five homers and nine RBIs. Nelson Cruz added a two-run homer in the third and Young hit a two-run homer in fifth as the O's led 5-2 after three and 8-3 after five innings. Cruz's homer was his 30th. He becomes the 19th different Oriole to have a 30-homer season. It is the 34th 30-homer season in O's history. Cruz had gone 12 games without a homer and had just one over his last 25 games. The Orioles hit six homers Friday night - one short of a team record - and have hit nine in the series. They've hit at least one homer in eight straight games with 18 in that stretch. They lead the majors leagues with 147 on the year. The Orioles have scored 22 runs on 31 hits in the first two games of this series after scoring three runs on six hits in the two games prior. All the offense helped Ubaldo Jimenez get a win and overcome a shaky start to his first big league outing since July 5. Jimenez walked two of the first three batters he faced today and gave up single runs in the first, second and fourth innings. On the day, he pitched six innings, allowing six hits and three runs as he improved to 4-8 with an ERA of 4.51. He threw 93 pitches as he picked up his first win since June 30 against Texas. Lackey took a pounding and a loss today. He gave up 13 hits and nine runs over five innings. In four starts this season against the Orioles, he has an ERA of 9.13. In 21 2/3 innings, he's allowed 36 hits, 22 runs and six homers. The Orioles won for the sixth time in seven games. They've won 12 of 16 and are 41-22 since May 31. They have won 13 of their last 17 home games and improved to 9-4 in interleague games. They'll go for a sweep here on Sunday afternoon when Kevin Gausman (6-3, 3.77 ERA) faces right-hander Lance Lynn (11-8, 2.98 ERA).