O's lose lead as Houston scores four in seventh to take series opener

The Houston Astros lead the major leagues in runs scored from the seventh inning on this year. The Orioles found out the hard way about that tonight.

Down 2-1, Houston scored four times in the last of the seventh off three O's pitchers as the Astros rallied to beat the Orioles 5-2 in the opener of a four-game series and seven-game road trip.

The Orioles fall to 23-27 and tie a season-high by falling four games under the .500 mark. Since their walk-off win on Friday night, they are 0-3.

Chris Carter led off the Houston seventh with a single off Ubaldo Jimenez, who was replaced by Brad Brach. Brach allowed a walk and single to load the bases with one ou, George Springer's single to center tied it at 2-2 and Houston went ahead 3-2 on a Jose Altuve sac fly. Then Tommy Hunter came on and was greeted by an Evan Gattis two-run single for a 5-2 lead. Gattis is 6-for-15 in four games against the Orioles with a homer and four RBIs.

The Orioles scored once in the fifth to take a 1-0 lead. Steve Pearce drew a leadoff walk and scored on Ryan Flaherty's one-out triple to right. But Flaherty was stranded on third as Everth Cabrera struck out and Manny Machado was robbed of an infield hit on a great play up the middle by shortstop Marwin Gonzalez.

In the last of the fifth, Luis Valbuena's solo homer, on a 1-1 splitter from Jimenez, tied it 1-1. It stayed tied and the inning ended when Delmon Young threw Gonzalez out at the plate from right field as he tried to score on a Altuve single.

The O's began the day tied for the AL lead with Chicago with 16 outfield assists and that was Young's seventh.

The O's moved ahead 2-1 in the sixth on a Chris Davis RBI double with one out. It followed an Adam Jones walk and a Young single. But the O's missed a chance to add more when they stranded runners on second and third with one out, as Pearce struck out and Caleb Joseph flied out. Through the sixth inning tonight, the Orioles were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Jimenez allowed four hits and two runs over six innings, throwing 91 pitches. Brach took the loss to fall to 3-1.

The Orioles were held to two runs or less for the 12th time in the last 22 games, and they fall to 8-15 on the road and to 2-8 in their past 10 on the road.

Houston improves to 32-20, 2-2 against the Orioles, 17-12 at home and to 27-2 when scoring four or more runs.

In the second game of the series on Tuesday night, Mike Wright (2-0, 1.40 ERA) faces Houston right-hander Collin McHugh (5-2, 4.24 ERA).