A few notes on the Orioles' series-opening win at New York

When the Orioles started their series at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night, they were 2-5 in that ballpark this year and then won two of three games. They need to do that or better this weekend at Yankee Stadium, where they began this series with a 2-5 record.

On a rainy and miserable night in the opener of this final series of the regular season, the Orioles took care of business in the Bronx.

They hit three homers, all in one inning. And Yovani Gallardo pitched a strong game. The Orioles beat the Yankees 8-1 to guarantee they will end the night at worst tied for the top American League wild card and will be at least 1 1/2 games ahead of the Tigers. The Orioles' magic number to clinch a playoff berth is two.

The Orioles are 88-72 with two games to go and are 6-1 over their last seven games. In that span, O's starting pitchers have an ERA of 2.05.

A few notes on tonight's win:

* The Orioles mashed three homers in the game, all in a six-run fifth inning, giving them 250 for the season. Adam Jones (No. 29) hit a solo shot, while Mark Trumbo (No. 47) blasted a two-run homer and then Jonathan Schoop capped the inning with a three-run home run (No. 25).

With 250 homers, the Orioles are seven short of the team single-season record set by the 1996 Orioles. They now rank with the fifth-most in one season in major league history, tonight passing the 2000 Houston Astros, who hit 249. The all-time record is 264 by the 1997 Seattle Mariners.

Trumbo is now tied for fourth most in one year in O's history:
53 - Chris Davis (2013)
50 - Brady Anderson (1996)
49 - Frank Robinson (1966)
47 - Davis (2015) and Trumbo (2016)

* Schoop tonight ended a streak of 15 straight games without a homer or RBI. Over his last three games, he is 5-for-11 after a five-game run where he went 0-for-20. He had a two-run double in the fourth to provide a 2-0 lead and then blasted the three-run shot an inning later.

* The Orioles now have five players with 25 or more homers, becoming the 12th team in major league history with five or more with 25 or more.

* The Orioles' eight runs tonight are their most since scoring 11 at Detroit on Sept. 10 - that was 19 games ago. The Orioles had scored just eight runs in the Toronto series and just 31 runs in the previous 12 games.

* Gallardo got the win. He went six innings, allowing just two hits and one run on 102 pitches. He came up with this solid outing in the same ballpark where he gave up eight runs in 1 1/3 innings on Aug. 26. He had a career ERA of 8.16 in three previous starts at Yankee Stadium.