Nats strike for two homers in sixth, rally to beat Orioles

Miguel Gonzalez looked like he was on a roll. The Orioles right-hander had retired 10 straight heading into the top of the sixth inning and held a 4-2 lead.

But four batters and two homers later, the Orioles trailed by two runs and the Washington Nationals used that rally to beat the Orioles 7-4 tonight in front of a sellout of 44,495 at Camden Yards.

Bryce Harper entered tonight just a .200 career hitter against the Orioles, but he led off the sixth with a laser shot to right for his 26th homer of the year and the Nats pulled within 4-3.

Singles by Clint Robinson and Wilson Ramos followed and then Danny Espinosa's three-run homer provided Washington a 6-4 lead. He hit No. 10 on an 0-1 pitch.

The O's took a 3-2 lead after two innings, getting a Jimmy Paredes RBI groundout in the first and a Caleb Joseph two-run homer in the second. Joseph hit No. 6 - and his first since June 12 - to give the Orioles a lead.

Two innings later, Steve Pearce homered - it was his first since May 27 - and the Orioles led 4-2. They got four early runs off Jordan Zimmermann, who entered with a record of 2-0 and 0.40 ERA over his previous three starts.

But Gonzalez could not hold the lead and took the loss to fall to 7-6 with an ERA of 4.24. Over five innings plus four batters, he allowed nine hits and six runs, throwing 79 pitches.

The Orioles again went without a hit with a runner in scoring position. They went 0-for-8 tonight, making them 0-for-15 in this series and just 1-for-35 over their last five games with RISP.

The Nationals won for the 13th time in 19 games to improve to 47-37. They had lost eight of their last 10 against the Orioles before this victory.

The O's lost for the seventh time in nine games and the ninth in 12 contests to fall to 44-43 with one more game before the All-Star break.

In Sunday's series finale, Wei-Yin Chen (4-4, 2.82 ERA) faces Max Scherzer (9-7, 2.12 ERA).