Orioles change venues, but results stay same vs. Nats

WASHINGTON - The view from the press box at Nationals Park makes the players appear the size of miniature tootsie rolls. However, Tanner Roark's issues in the first few innings of the game were magnified. Everyone saw what was happening.

Roark threw 39 pitches in the first inning and raised his count to 62 after the second, the Orioles scoring five runs and absorbing three pitches that caught flesh. They sent 15 batters to the plate in two innings. Each one was at risk.

Turns out the Orioles were the team doling out most of the punishment. At least until the bottom of the ninth.

Manny Machado launched a 452-foot two-run homer in the first and added RBI singles in the second and eighth as part of a four-hit night, and the Orioles held on for a 10-8 victory over the Nats before 39,100.

Daniel Murphy hit a grand slam off Parker Bridwell with one out in the ninth and Zach Britton was forced into the game. Britton allowed his first earned run since April 30 when Bryce Harper singled and scored on Anthony Rendon's double.

Britton's major league record of not allowing an earned run in 43 straight appearances came to an end, but he got Ryan Zimmerman to ground into a 4-6-3 double play after Wilson Ramos reached on a fielder's choice.

The Orioles have taken the first three games of the home-and-home series and will go for the sweep Thursday night. They're 70-56 overall and 28-34 on the road.

Machado is 27-for-69 (.391) lifetime against the Nats and 17-for-36 (.472) in D.C.

The Orioles broke open the game in the eighth inning with five runs off Blake Treinen, the last three on Matt Wieters' home run to center field. Jonathan Schoop had an RBI single as part of a rally that started with Hyun Soo Kim's one-out double.

Wade Miley earned his first win with the Orioles in five tries, allowing two runs and seven hits in five-plus innings. He walked one, struck out five, served up a home run and hit a batter.

Orioles starters have a 2.12 ERA in the first three games of the series. Ubaldo Jimenez joins the fray on Thursday.

Bridwell retired the side in order in the eighth on three fly balls before it got interesting in the ninth. But the game actually may have been won in the seventh after rookie Donnie Hart struck out Harper with the count full to strand two runners.

Schoop was hit to load the bases in the first and Wieters was hit to force in a run. It was that kind of night. Mark Trumbo was drilled on the hand with two outs in the second, giving Roark three hit batters among 14 faced.

At least he didn't hit anyone in the face.

Miley nailed Werth in the bottom of the first inning, knocking the legs out from under him, but he kept most of his four-run cushion by limiting the Nats to Rendon's two-out double.

For whatever reason, third base coach Bob Henley sent Murphy and the Orioles gladly took the easy out at home - Kim to J.J. Hardy to Wieters.

Miley singled in the third inning, because Roark hadn't already proven that tonight was going to be a mixed bag - most of it bad, but in varieties.

Trea Turner made a diving catch in right-center field to rob Adam Jones in the top of the first. Otherwise, the Orioles would have done more damage. Kim singled, Machado homered to Arlington, Va., Chris Davis doubled, Trumbo walked and Roark hit the next two batters.

Hardy's sacrifice fly gave the Orioles a 4-0 lead, and Miley was in more of a protective mode than his last start.

Jones reached on an infield hit in the second and advanced on Rendon's throwing error. He scored on Machado's single to right-center field.

Roark somehow made it through five innings at 111 pitches and continued to trail 5-1. The Orioles put runners on second and third with no outs in the fifth and failed to score, allowing Roark to leave on a high note.

He probably would have hit the high notes, too.

The Orioles stranded two more in the sixth and the Nats were poised to take advantage in the bottom half by putting runners on second and third with no outs. Mychal Givens replaced Miley and held the 5-2 lead by striking out Rendon, retiring Ramos on a pop up and striking out Zimmerman.

Can Givens get a save in the sixth inning?

Givens exited with runners on the corners and two outs in the seventh, and Murphy dropped a broken-bat single into right field off Hart to reduce the lead to 5-3. Murphy's got the kid's number.

Harper does not. He struck out while Brad Brach warmed in the bullpen after bouncing back to the mound the last time he saw Hart in Baltimore.