Chen wins his season finale; Machado, Parra each drive in three in victory

In what may be his last appearance as an Oriole, Wei-Yin Chen pitched a strong game. Manny Machado meanwhile continued to remind us of his bright future.

Machado homered and drove in three runs, Gerardo Parra added three RBIs and Chen gave up two runs over six-plus innings as the Orioles beat New York 9-2 in Game 1 of a split doubleheader.

In winning their third game in a row, the Orioles improved to 79-81 and kept alive their shot to have a .500 season. They are now 8-9 versus New York, 45-31 in home games and 25-29 in the first game of a series.

Chen took a shutout into the seventh and came out after a leadoff walk and single. Those two runs he left on base scored as he went six innings, allowing four hits and the two runs, with three walks and strikeouts. Chen threw 103 pitches, 69 for strikes.

Chen ends the year 11-8 with an ERA of 3.34 in 31 starts and over 191 1/3 innings. Over his last four starts, he is 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA. The Orioles went 19-12 in his starts in 2015.

The O's took a 1-0 lead in the first. Nolan Reimold led off with an infield single, went to third on Parra's single and scored when Machado bounced into a double play. Machado's RBI groundout in the third made it 2-0, and his homer in the fifth gave the O's a 3-0 lead. He drilled a 93 mph fastball from Ivan Nova over the left-center fence. It was No. 34 for Machado. Over his last three games, Machado is 6-for-13 with four homers and seven RBIs. He has 85 RBIs on the year and is certainly finishing strong.

The Orioles blew the game open with four runs in the sixth. The inning featured RBI singles by Machado, Parra and Chris Davis for his 113th RBI. Parra, who was batting .161 his last 30 games, went 4-for-5 with two doubles. It is his first multi-hit game since Aug. 23.

Reimold added a 2-for-3 day as he, Parra, Machado and Davis - batting 1-2-3-4 in the order - went a combined 10-for-17 with six runs scored and seven RBIs. Batting fifth, Matt Wieters reached base five times today with a single and four walks. J.J. Hardy went 3-for-5 with three singles for his first multi-hit game since Aug. 5.

In tonight's game at 7:05 p.m., Ubaldo Jimenez (12-10, 4.10 ERA) is scheduled to face 21-year-old right-hander Luis Severino (5-3, 2.77 ERA). Jimenez is 3-1 with an ERA of 2.93 in five starts since Sept. 1. Severino, the youngest pitcher to start in the majors in 2015, is 2-0 with a 1.53 ERA over his past three starts.