Norris wins his second as an Oriole, Jones has four hits as O's top Padres

Adam Jones went 4-for-4 with a homer in his hometown, and Bud Norris improved to 2-0 with the team as the Orioles beat San Diego 4-1 in the opening game of an important eight-game road trip. Norris pitched out several jams, going six innings and allowing five hits and one run, with two walks and five strikeouts. He has an ERA of 2.25 in two O's starts. San Diego went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position against Norris. They got a leadoff triple in the first but could not score, put two on to lead off the second and didn't score, and got three singles to start the last of the sixth and scored just once in that inning. Norris had gone 2-for-5 with a 5.91 ERA over eight road starts for Houston and pitched to a career road ERA of 5.46, but he won his first O's road start tonight. Norris has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in 18 of his 23 starts on the year and has 15 quality starts, including two in two games for the Orioles. The Orioles took the lead in the first inning. Nate McLouth led off with a double, stole third base and scored on a two-out RBI single by Jones. Jones put the O's ahead 2-0 in the fourth with a long homer to left. It was No. 23 for Jones, and his first in nine games. He now has seven homers over his last 20 games and 79 RBIs. With the O's ahead 2-1 in the eighth, Jones singled with two outs for his fourth hit and stole second. He scored on a Chris Davis double for a big insurance run and two-run lead. That was RBI No. 103 for Davis. Manny Machado extended that lead to 4-1 with an RBI single in the ninth. The Orioles got three scoreless innings from their bullpen. Darren O'Day got a key double play in the eighth, and Jim Johnson pitched the ninth for his major league-leading 39th save. He is 10-for-10 in save chances since July 7. The O's picked up the win over a Padres team that had won four straight series and 10 of its last 15 games. The Orioles had lost eight of their last 12 games, but are now 62-51. In the two-game series finale on Wednesday afternoon at 3:40 p.m. ET, Miguel Gonzalez (8-5, 3.88 ERA) pitches for the Orioles against San Diego lefty Eric Stults (8-10, 3.5 ERA).