Jones ties career-high with five RBIs as Orioles beat Oakland

If you can lead by example on a baseball diamond, Adam Jones did that tonight. Less than 24 hours after the Orioles gut-wrenching loss in the last of the ninth on Friday, Jones hit a three-run homer in the first inning tonight as part of a five-RBI night, leading the Orioles past Oakland 8-4. Jones added two steals to become the first player in Orioles history to have five or more RBIs along with multiple stolen bases in one game. Winners of 11 of their last 15, the Orioles are 53-43 and lead the American League East by four games over both New York and Toronto. Jones began tonight with just four hits in 27 at-bats over his last seven games and just one RBI over his last 10 games, but he matched his career-high RBI night. He also had five on July 28, 2008 against the Yankees. Nick Markakis led off tonight's game with a single and Steve Pearce walked. Then Jones hit a 2-0 pitch from Jason Hammel out to left. Jones hit No. 17 and added a two-run single in the fourth inning as the Orioles took a 7-1 lead. He went 2-for-4 and scored two runs. By the way, Jones homered in the first inning on June 21, the day after Zach Britton's previous blown save in New York and he did it tonight after last night's blown save. Last night, Jones was hit by a pitch up and in and J.J. Hardy was hit in the back of his batting helmet. Both homered in the first inning off Hammel tonight as the O's answered Friday's loss by taking a 4-0 lead six batters into the game. Markakis went 4-for-5 with two runs scored to increase his average to .294. Pearce went 3-for-4 with two doubles and scored twice and Chris Davis added a solo homer in the ninth off Jim Johnson and produced his 49th and 50th RBIs. The Orioles, who had 13 hits, had scored just 16 runs with a team batting average of .205 over the previous six games. Wei-Yin Chen got the benefit of all that offense and gained the victory even though he gave up three runs and five hits in five innings. Chen, who threw 86 pitches, improves to 10-3 with an ERA of 4.21 over 18 starts. Hammel, the former Oriole, took the loss, allowing five runs and six hits in two-plus innings. Hammel is 0-2 with an ERA of 9.00 in two starts for his new team. Zach Britton was called on to get the last out in the ninth with two men on to record his 16th save. He struck out Nick Punto with runners on first and third to end the game. The Orioles, now 16-8 over the last 24 games, ended Oakland's seven-game home winning streak and handed the A's just their second home loss in 14 games. Baltimore had lost 18 of its last 24 games in this ballpark. In the series finale on Sunday afternoon at 4:05 p.m., Kevin Gausman (4-2, 3.29 ERA) pitches against right-hander Sonny Gray (10-3, 2.79 ERA).