Early power display and Britton's 10 Ks carry the O's to victory

A stunning power display at the plate and a strikeout display on the mound combined to provide the Orioles with a 5-3 win over the Chicago White Sox this afternoon at Camden Yards, as the Orioles won three of four in this series and completed a 5-1 homestand. The Orioles improved to 72-58 and head to New York for a big three-game series, trailing the first-place Yankees by three games. Chicago starter Jose Quintana retired the first eight batters today before the Orioles struck for five consecutive extra-base hits and a 4-1 lead in the last of the third. It began with a Taylor Teagarden solo homer and was followed by back-to-back doubles from Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy before Adam Jones hit a long two-run homer to left. It was Jones' 26th homer as he added to his career high. Teagarden added an RBI double an inning later. Zach Britton, meanwhile, was very sharp, especially after giving up one run and four hits in the second. He pitched a season-high eight innings, allowing seven hits with no walks and a career-high 10 strikeouts. He threw 104 pitches, improving to 4-1 with an ERA of 4.80 in eight starts. He retired 19 of the last 21 batters he faced this afternoon. Over his last three starts, Britton is 3-0 with an ERA of 1.25. Alexei Ramirez came up with a two-run single with two outs in the ninth, which brought the tying run to the plate, but Jim Johnson struck out Gordon Beckham to end the game. Today's attendance was 10,141 at Camden Yards, the smallest crowd of the year. The four-game series with Chicago drew 47,035. The Orioles won at home for the 13th time in the last 17 games. Overall, the Orioles have won five of six, eight of 11, 17 of 24 and 26 of the last 40 games. In the New York series, Miguel Gonzalez (5-3, 3.66 ERA) pitches against Hiroki Kuroda (12-9, 2.98 ERA) on Friday. It's Wei-Yin Chen (12-7, 3.78 ERA) against Freddy Garcia (7-4, 4.90 ERA) on Saturday. Sunday, it's Chris Tillman (7-2, 3.26 ERA) against New York's David Phelps (3-4, 2.96 ERA).