O's bash four more homers, beat St. Louis to win series

For the Orioles, the homers kept coming today - and that often means a nice runs total and a win. It did today, as the Orioles hit the longball four times in an 8-5 victory over St. Louis to take the series, two games to one.

On Saturday, the Orioles bashed four homers in the first four innings and five on the game. Today, they hit four more - all in the first five innings.

Seth Smith, Trey Mancini and Welington Castillo hit solo homers and Mark Trumbo added a two-run shot. The Orioles hit 10 homers in the series and O's pitchers gave up 12. The Orioles scored 23 runs the last two games after scoring just two each on Thursday and Friday night.

When Trumbo went deep, the Orioles became the second team in the majors to have six players with 10 or more homers. The Yankees were the first club to do it.

The Orioles did find themselves dealing with yet another injury. Shortstop J.J. Hardy was hit by a pitch in the fourth and was replaced by Rubén Tejada in the sixth due to a right wrist contusion.

On the mound, right-hander Ubaldo Jiménez made his first start since May 22 and threw well. In fact he gave the Orioles just their second quality start over the last 13 games.

In seven innings, Jiménez allowed four hits and two runs with four walks and three strikeouts. He is now 2-2 with an ERA of 6.25. He threw 106 pitches. The only runs he allowed were on a pair of solo homers by Stephen Piscotty, who produced his second career multi-homer game.

But a shaky bullpen allowed two homers in the eighth as St. Louis pulled within 8-5. Dexter Fowler hit a two-run homer off Vidal Nuño and Yadier Molina a solo shot off Miguel Castro. Brad Brach pitched the ninth to record his 12th save.

For the O's offense, Smith led off the first with a 414-foot blast to center. It was his third leadoff homer of the year, the fifth of his career and fourth for the 2017 Orioles. Mancini's 12th homer in the second made it 2-1 and Trumbo's RBI single in the third made it 3-1.

The O's extended a 3-2 lead to 7-2 in the last of the fifth. That inning featured triples by Adam Jones and Mancini. Jones scored ahead of Trumbo's two-run homer and Mancini on a deep sac fly by Jonathan Schoop. Castillo's solo homer that inning made it 7-2. An inning later, Smith doubled and scored on Manny Machado's single for the 8-2 edge.

St. Louis starter Lance Lynn began the day ranked fourth in the National League in ERA. But he gave up nine hits and seven runs over 4 2/3, allowing season highs in homers and runs. His ERA jumped from 2.69 to 3.33 after his 109-pitch game.

Now back at .500 at 34-34, the Orioles won for just the third time in 11 games. They are 23-11 at home and 8-4 in games versus the National League.

The Orioles host Cleveland to start a four-game series Monday night when Dylan Bundy (7-5, 3.29 ERA) faces Corey Kluber (5-2, 4.15 ERA).