Caleb Joseph homers, Wei-Yin Chen gets win as O's take road trip finale

The Orioles have not scored a lot of runs this year in support of left-hander Wei-Yin Chen. Today, they did provide some support and even though Chen was not as his best, he did get the win. The Orioles beat Tampa Bay 5-2 to take the final two games of the series.

The Orioles improved to 48-49, ending their road trip going 4-5 on trips to Detroit, New York and Tampa Bay.

Staked to a 5-0 lead in the fourth, Chen allowed back-to-back homers in the last of the fourth to Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe. The homers came after Chen retired the first 11 hitters.

But Chen pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and was replaced by Tommy Hunter with two on and one out in the sixth. He went 5 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and two runs to get the win. Chen is 5-6 with an ERA of 2.88. He began today ninth in the AL in ERA.

This was the eighth start in his last nine outings where Chen allowed two earned runs or fewer. He is 4-2 with an ERA of 2.55 in that time and the Orioles are 6-3. His stretch of six straight quality starts that tied his career high ended this afternoon.

The Orioles provided him a 3-0 lead before he threw a pitch today. Chris Davis walked with one out to start the game and went to second on Adam Jones' single. J.J. Hardy's RBI single made it 1-0 and Nolan Reimold's two-run double to left gave the Orioles the 3-0 edge. Reimold, who started the day batting .211, went 3-for-3 with a walk. He's now hitting .250.

After Jonathan Schoop reached on an infield single to start the Orioles fourth, Caleb Joseph homered to left off Matt Moore and it was 5-0. Joseph hit a 91 mph fastball out to left on the first pitch for his seventh homer. The Orioles are 15-2 when Joseph drives in two or more runs.

The Orioles scored five runs in back-to-back games for the first time since June 21-23. They have scored five or more just four times in the last 20 games. During their recent four-game losing streak, they scored nine total runs.

The Orioles bullpen backed Chen with 3 2/3 scoreless innings from Hunter, Brad Brach, Darren O'Day and Zach Britton. Britton got the final three outs to record his 25th save.

Now the Birds return home to face Atlanta on Monday night with Kevin Gausman (1-2, 5.18 ERA) facing left-hander Alex Wood (7-6, 3.78 ERA).