Chris Davis homers twice, reaches 40 for year, as Orioles trounce Toronto

TORONTO - Chris Davis had another good night.

The Orioles' slugging first baseman homered twice again tonight and became the first player in the majors to reach 40 homers as the Orioles hammered first-place Toronto 10-2 at Rogers Centre in front of a sellout crowd of 46,201.

The Orioles slowed a red-hot Blue Jays team that went 21-6 in August and was 31-11 since the All-Star break, averaging 5.8 runs per game. The top five hitters in the dangerous Toronto lineup went a combined 1-for-20 tonight.

The O's are 65-69, 6-7 versus the Blue Jays and won for just the third time overall in their past 15 games. It was an impressive start to a six-game road trip in Toronto and New York.

This makes four homers in two games for Davis. Davis is the first Orioles hitter to have back-to-back multi-homer games since Luke Scott against Detroit on May 28-29, 2009. After his second homer tonight, Davis had homered five times in his previous eight at-bats.

Over his last three games he is 6-for-13 with five homers and eight RBIs. Davis has 40 homers and 100 RBIs. This three-game run of five homers followed a stretch where Davis had homered just once in his previous 16 games.

The Orioles scored twice in the second to take a 2-0 lead on a Davis leadoff homer and Ryan Flaherty's two-out RBI double that scored Jimmy Paredes, who had singled. Toronto scored single runs in the second and fifth to tie it.

But after Adam Jones leadoff single in the sixth, Davis hit a two-run shot to left for a 4-2 lead. It was his sixth multi-homer game of this season, second in two games and 13th in his career. The O's added two more in the inning when Matt Wieters followed Davis with a solo homer to left and Manny Machado later added a sac fly.

Toronto left fielder Ben Revere helped the Wieters homer make it over the fence. He leaped near the wall and the ball kicked out of his glove and over the wall as Wieters ended a 16-game run without an RBI.

On the mound tonight, Ubaldo Jimenez had an uneven performance. He tied his career high with six walks, but he also got some big outs as high-scoring Toronto went 0-for-6 against him with runners in scoring position.

Entering tonight with an ERA of 7.50 in nine second-half starts, Jimenez went 5 2/3 allowing four hits and two runs (one earned) and he fanned four. He is now 10-9 with an ERA of 4.24. In four starts this year against the Blue Jays, Jimenez is 3-1 with a 2.55 ERA.

Meanwhile, the Orioles' offensive onslaught continued with a four-run eighth off Bo Schultz that featured a Gerardo Parra two-run double and Jones' two-run homer. It was Jones' 25th homer and came an inning after he was hit by a pitch for the 11th in his career by Toronto pitchers.

It was quite a night for the Orioles, who had 13 hits, eight of which went for extra bases (four homers and four doubles), and they were 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

In the second game of this series on Saturday afternoon, Mike Wright (2-3, 4.99 ERA) pitches against left-hander David Price (13-5, 2.47 ERA).