Orioles left-hander Wei-Yin Chen allowed two runs in the first inning in nine starts before tonight.
Chen surrendered three in the opening frame tonight, all of them coming on one swing from Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez.
Gomez took a curveball out of the strike zone and launched another curveball over the left field fence with two runners aboard to give Milwaukee a quick 3-0 lead.
Left-handers are batting .383 against Chen this season, but the Brewers lineup is stacked with right-handed hitters.
Chen ranks third in the American League in run support average at 6.79, and he's going to need it tonight. That's quite a switch, considering how the bats usually went into a deep freeze with Chen on the mound.
Nick Markakis grounded out to second leading off the top of the first inning tonight, making him 4-for-35 lifetime against Brewers starter Matt Garza.
Adam Jones chucked his helmet and bat after plate umpire D.J. Reyburn ruled that the center fielder didn't check his swing with two strikes. Jones wasn't ejected, but he's going to pay a fine.
Jones has safely reached base in 20 straight games since May 6, hitting .361 (31-for-86) with four doubles, a triple, five home runs and 14 RBIs.
Nick Hundley and Nelson Cruz have registered a game-winning RBI in their Orioles debuts this season. Cruz did it against the Red Sox on opening day.
The last Oriole to record a game-winning RBI in his debut with the club prior to Cruz and Hundley was catcher Taylor Teagarden, who beat the Tigers with a two-run walk-off homer in the 13th inning on July 14, 2012. This nugget, along with so many others, comes courtesy of the Orioles' PR staff.
According to Elias, the Orioles are the only club with two players to drive in the game winning run in their first game this year.
Cruz leads the majors with 32 RBIs on the road, and his nine road homers are tied with White Sox rookie Jose Abreu for the lead.
Cruz has hit in seven straight games, going 11-for-26 (.423) with three doubles, four homers, eight RBIs and nine runs scored and eight RBIs. And he's not the only Oriole streaking.
Manny Machado has hit in nine straight games, going 12-for-38 (.316) with a double, home run, three RBIs and seven runs scored. J.J. Hardy has hit in eight straight games, going 16-for-33 (.485) with two doubles, four RBIs and four runs scored.
Hardy has multi-hit games in six of the last eight.
Hardy has not hit a home run in his first 41 games, his longest stretch to start the season since his rookie year (44 games). And according to STATS, Hardy's stretch of 251 consecutive at-bats without a homer is the second-longest by an active player with a 30-plus homer season in his career, behind Jacoby Ellsbury's 314 at-bat homerless stretch from April 7-July 4, 2013.
The Orioles lead the AL and are second in the majors behind the Rockies (.285) with a .284 average with runners in scoring position. According to STATS, the Orioles have never led the AL in average with RISP in the 40 years that the statistic has been tracked. They finished second in 2009 (.284), 2008 (.287), 1993 (.282) and 1985 (.288).
The Orioles are batting .283 in their first 26 road games, trailing only the Rangers (.286).
Update: Former Oriole Mark Reynolds homered in the second inning to increase the Brewers' lead to 4-0.
Chen had allowed two runs in the second inning before tonight. He had surrendered four home runs this season before the Brewers ambushed him in the first and second.
Update II: Khris Davis homered off Chen leading off the fourth to give Milwaukee a 5-0 lead.
Chen hadn't allowed three home runs in a game since Sept. 7, 2012 against the Yankees.
The Orioles have one hit off Garza in four innings. He's struck out seven.
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