Mancini and Schoop homer, Aquino gets first win (with quotes)

The Orioles took a little longer tonight to figure out knuckleballer Steven Wright. Three innings without a run. The flutter pitch had them flummoxed.

All was right with the Orioles in the fourth. Chris Davis doubled, Trey Mancini homered, Jonathan Schoop homered and Wright had a flashback and an early start on the postgame spread.

The Orioles scored four runs in the inning, with Adam Jones contributing a two-out RBI single after Caleb Joseph doubled and Craig Gentry reached on an infield hit, and the Orioles defeated the Red Sox 4-2 before an announced crowd of 35,457 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles have hit back-to-back home runs twice this month. They also did it on April 12. Also Mancini and Schoop. Also against Wright.

It's a small baseball world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

Mancini has hit eight home runs in 17 games, tying the major league record.

Jayson Aquino earned his first major league win and left-hander Donnie Hart came within a strike of his first save. More on that later.

Wright served up four home runs over 1 1/3 innings in his first start against the Orioles, who tagged him for eight runs. Tonight was an improvement. That's all he could take out of it.

Manny Machado made it through the night without sliding or taking a fastball to the flesh. Wright never got close to him in two at-bats, when Machado grounded a single into left field and grounded to third. Heath Hembree replaced Wright after Jones' RBI single and struck out Machado with the count full.

Machado popped up Hembree's first pitch leading off the seventh.

Donnie Ross Jr. drilled Schoop on the left thigh in the eighth inning. No fair hitting Machado's best friend!

Schoop slid into Team Netherlands teammate Xander Bogaerts on the ensuing double play. They hugged. Peace in our time.

Left-hander Jayson Aquino picked up his first major league win in his first start. He allowed two runs and six hits in six innings, with three walks, two strikeouts, a home run and a wild pitch. Aquino threw 99 pitches, the last resulting in a ground ball from Marco Hernandez that stranded runners on the corners with the Orioles ahead 4-2.

The Orioles rotation has compiled a 0.94 ERA in the last four games.

Jackie Bradley Jr. had one at-bat against Aquino in September and singled. He singled in the first inning tonight and hit a two-run homer in the third after Bogaerts singled to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

Aquino put a runner on base in every inning. Chris Young walked in the second and singled and stole a base in the fourth. Hernandez led off the fifth with a single and Bradley walked with one out. Mitch Moreland led off the sixth with a walk and moved up on a wild pitch, and Pablo Sandoval reached on an infield hit with two outs.

Bradley must have Aquino's number. Comes in handy if you need to text an apology. But enough about Machado and Dustin Pedroia.

Mychal Givens retired all six batters he faced, striking out two and fielding two balls hit back to him. Hart was called upon to work the ninth with Brad Brach unavailable and retired the first two batters before hitting Hernandez on a 1-2 count. So close to a save in his 29th major league game.

Darren O'Day threw one pitch, Bogaerts lined softly to Schoop and the game was over.

Joseph was 0-for-12 before his single in the third inning, a ball punched up the first base line and past the bag. He doubled to right-center field in the fourth and coasted into second base as fans screamed for the triple.

Joseph decided to tackle the hardest part of the cycle later in the night.

The Orioles improved to 12-4, the best record in baseball. They've won four in a row.

Manager Buck Showalter on Aquino's outing: "Good. I thought Caleb did a good job with him maneuvering him through that. I think you saw some of the things that we liked about him. He doesn't lack for ... I don't want to say confidence. He's one of those guys who says, 'Here's mine and see what you can do with it. I'm not going to pick around.'

"I wish I could come up with a better phrase, but there's just a personality to his pitching. He's got a good hand and it's a cold night, too. Guys were having trouble gripping the baseball. Everybody but, that's one advantage a knuckleballer might have.

"Mychal was big for us going through that part of the order. But Aquino was good. Athletic guy. Mychal made a couple plays that looked like an ex-shortstop. He is."

On whether Aquino looked like same guy who impressed in spring training: "Keep in mind that's a really good club. They're obviously minus (Dustin) Pedroia, but you're getting everybody's best shot up here. Actually struggled more with left-handed hitters, it seemed like. He had a changeup he got hurt on and a slider to Bradley. But I'm glad you keep an open mind because what I saw on a quick look last year didn't match up with what we saw in the spring.

"You kind of lean on what your guys who have seen him consistently down below say. So I was glad to see what everybody was talking about."

On Mancini: "Trey, the veteran players respect how he carries himself. They think he's very humble. He's obviously been brought up well. He knows how hard this is to do and how the game can humble you. His teammates have gotten on the same page with him because they like the way he carries and handles the success he's had in a short period."

On Wright: "Go figure. He's going to get it going. This guy, for a while they were talking Cy Young with him. We've seen the best of him and we've been fortunate to catch him before he's really got it going. It started out early, you see those weak fly balls off the end of the bat, it doesn't usually bode well for you. But it seemed like he may have lost the feel for it a little bit for that inning."

On having more pitching options: "You kind of shuffle the deck if certain things aren't working. Dan (Duquette) is good at that. I like right now where we sit depth-wise. Chris (Tillman) had a good, healthy outing, said it was the best he's felt. We watched it up until the third inning. Those are things, we've got to hold the fort down through that. There's opportunities to create some things.

"Now, we don't really need a fifth starter until the second of May. So, we've got to decide what we're going to do with guys like Aquino and (Alec) Asher. It's a really good problem to have. One we haven't had around here too much. "

On Tilman's rehab start: "He threw 58 (pitches), was supposed to throw no more than 60-ish. I'm sure I'll talk to Dean Albany and Gary Kendall a little bit and see what they thought. Chris will be here tomorrow. He actually called and said, 'Should I come back to the locker room?' Said, 'No. See you here in the morning.' "