Gausman outpitches Gray, Lough homers off Johnson as O's beat A's

In a matchup of former first-round draft picks, the O's right-hander had the decided edge tonight. Kevin Gausman gave up just one run over seven innings to outduel Sonny Gray as the Orioles beat Oakland 6-3 in front of 44,202 fans, the third sellout of the season. Gausman became the first O's starter to pitch seven innings or more since May 17. The O's had gone 18 games in a row without such an outing. He gave up a solo homer to Coco Crisp on an 0-2 fastball in the third, but just three other hits. He walked one and fanned six, throwing 102 pitches. This was Gausman's second big league start of the year and he's 1-1 with an ERA of 4.91. Gausman really showed something in the top of the sixth when he allowed two leadoff singles. The A's had runners on second and third with one out when he struck out No. 3 hitter Josh Donaldson on a changeup and No. 4 hitter Brandon Moss with 99 mph heat. Gausman's outing came against a team that entered with a 38-23 record and ranked second in the American League in homers and second in the majors in runs. The O's backed Gausman with some offense off a pitcher in Gray, whose 2.40 ERA since Aug. 31, 2013 was the best in the AL. And they scored big off the team leading the majors in ERA at 2.80. An Adam Jones solo homer in the first was matched by that Crisp homer in the third. Then the O's scored three in the fifth and two in the sixth to pull away. Caleb Joseph's RBI double to right-center made it 2-1 in the fifth and RBI singles by Nick Markakis and Jones followed. An inning later, David Lough hit a two-run homer off former Oriole Jim Johnson. He took a 1-0 Johnson pitch out to right for his second homer of 2014. The two-inning, five-run outburst offset Oakland's comeback bid when Kyle Blanks' single scored two runs in the eighth. The Orioles have now scored 38 runs their past six games. They improve to 23-9 when scoring four or more. The Orioles, now 31-29, host the series finale Sunday afternoon at 1:35 p.m. when Ubaldo Jimenez (2-6, 4.39 ERA) pitches against lefty Scott Kazmir (6-2, 2.40 ERA).