Machado hits a grand slam and Lough homers as O's rout Houston 9-4

Before today, Manny Machado had not hit a grand slam for the Orioles and David Lough had not homered as an Oriole. Check and check. Machado's first career slam backed the pitching of Wei-Yin Chen as the Orioles routed Houston 9-4 to earn a split of the four-game series. The Orioles are 28-27 on the season and 3-4 on this long road trip, which continues Tuesday night at Texas. Nelson Cruz, the major league homer leader with 20, was hit on the left hand by a Scott Feldman pitch in the top of the third. He stayed in the game then, but was taken out as the O's took the field for the bottom of the inning. The good news was that X-rays were negative and he's listed as day-to-day with a left hand contusion. Lough hit a two-out, two-run homer for a 2-0 lead in the second inning. It was his first homer since Sept. 26 and Lough finished with three RBIs to tie his career high. Up 3-1, the Orioles scored six times in the sixth inning to match their biggest inning of 2014. After a Lough RBI single and Nick Hundley sac fly, Machado hit his first career slam to make it a 9-1 lead. Machado began today with just three extra-base hits in 27 games, but went 2-for-4 with a double and the grand slam. Jonathan Schoop, who was hitless his last three games, went 3-for-4 to up his average to .226. J.J. Hardy went 2-for-4. That is his ninth multi-hit performance over his last 14 games and he's batting .418 (23-for-55) in that stretch. After scoring nine runs the last four days, the Orioles got nine today as they improved to 20-8 when scoring four or more runs. Meanwhile, Chen pitched just 5 1/3 innings, but did become the fourth O's starter in this series to give up two runs or less. Chen gave up four hits and one run, throwing 97 pitches. He is 6-2 with an ERA of 4.26. Orioles starters pitched to an ERA of 1.82 in the Houston series, allowing five earned runs over 24 2/3 innings. After an off-day on Monday, the Orioles begin a three-game series Tuesday night at Texas. Ubaldo Jimenez (2-6, 4.65 ERA) faces former Oriole Joe Saunders (0-1, 4.15 ERA).