Orioles move into third place with 11-3 win over Mariners (quotes added)

SEATTLE - Maybe it was Tim Beckham's leadoff home run on the first pitch. Or the 11 batters who came to the plate in the second inning. It might have been Manny Machado's grand slam into the third deck in left field.

This wasn't going to be Yovani Gallardo's night, and the clues were plentiful. The former Oriole was a popular teammate last summer and an easy target tonight.

I've seen punching bags treated with a more gentle touch.

The Orioles hit four home runs, including two after Gallardo departed, and opened their series against the Mariners with a resounding 11-3 victory before an announced crowd of 17,973 at chilly Safeco Field that again moved them within a game of .500.

Seth Smith homered in his return to Seattle. No video tribute for the former Mariner. Just a two-run shot off reliever Casey Lawrence with two outs in the fifth to complete Gallardo's line.

Gallardo, traded to the Mariners over the winter for Smith, was charged with eight runs and nine hits in four-plus innings. He exited after Adam Jones' leadoff double in the fifth.

Trey Mancini belted his 21st home run leading off the top of the seventh to increase the lead to 11-2. Every starter had a hit except for Caleb Joseph, who drove in a run, and the Orioles collected 10 or more hits for the fifth consecutive game.

The Orioles are 59-60 overall and 4-4 on their West Coast trip, they're two games back for the second wild card and they moved into third place for the first time since June 10. They scored in double digits for the second time in three nights and the third time in nine games.

Beckham produced his first career leadoff home run and the eighth for the Orioles this season. He also singled twice for his 10th multi-hit game this month since the Rays traded him. He has hits in 13 of 14 games with his new team.

Machado's second grand slam in a week and the sixth of his career came on a 1-2 pitch and gave the Orioles a 7-1 lead in the second inning. They have five slams this season. None have been louder.

Statcast measured Machado's ball at 430 feet. I'm taking the over. The 108.6 mph exit velocity seemed about right.

Jones singled in the second inning and doubled in the fifth to pass Boog Powell for fifth place on the club's all-time hits list with 1,575. Brady Anderson is fourth with 1,614.

Chris Davis had an RBI double in the second inning, a run-scoring single in the fifth before Smith's home run and another single in the seventh. Lowered to seventh in the order, Davis has six hits and five RBIs in his last three games. Tonight marked his first three-hit game since May 16 in Detroit.

Kevin Gausman allowed the tying run in the first inning on consecutive doubles by Jean Segura and Yonder Alonso. Robinson Canó singled and Beckham's throwing error as Alonso initially held at second base put two runners in scoring position with no outs.

The game could have gotten away from Gausman, but he struck out Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager and retired Guillermo Heredia on a slow roller to Beckham.

Don't let the final score fool you. This was a critical escape act.

Gausman (9-8) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings for his fifth quality start in his last six games, his ERA lowered to 1.80 in that stretch. He walked only one batter and struck out six, and he threw 112 pitches before Miguel Castro replaced him.

Cruz homered off Castro leading off the bottom of the ninth.

Gausman retired eight in a row and 12 of 13 before Mike Zunino's leadoff home run in the fifth. He walked Jarrod Dyson, who inexplicably tried to take second base on Segura's fly ball to right-center field. Jones threw out Dyson, who overslid the bag with the Orioles leading 10-2.

Dyson didn't make it back on the field. Manager Scott Servais removed him from the game.

That's what speed ... never mind.

The Mariners didn't get anyone up in the bullpen until the Orioles scored their seventh run. Mark Trumbo and Davis doubled with one out in the second inning. Smith singled and Davis scored on Joseph's ground ball to Seager, who threw late to the plate. Beckham singled to load the bases and Machado deposited the ball into the third deck beyond the out-of-town scoreboard.

There would be more runs and more hits - the Orioles finished with 16 - and a move past the Rays for third place.

Gausman on escaping jam: "It's huge. After the fact, Buck, after he told me I was out of the game, he said, 'Hey, you won the game in the first inning.' I'm obviously not trying to give back that run right away, but I just knew if I could make good quality pitches and really mix my pitches that I had a chance to get out of that inning."

Gausman on starters benefiting from all the runs scoring: "It's great. These are the teams that we need to beat, so you get a lead like that, I've got to be able to do what I did. Kind of shut the door. I've had multiple times this year where, in New York, I think they gave me nine runs, 9-1, and next thing you know it was 9-9. You have to win those games and just battle and try to grind through it."

Gausman on importance of elevating the fastball: "It was huge. That was something looking at them, scouting them, it was something that I knew I was going to be able to do. They have a lot of low-ball hitters, so if you throw fastballs up and throw enough strikes where they have to respect it, you can put yourself in some good counts to get some weak contact."

Gausman on feeling good about where team is: "Yeah, absolutely. I think we're playing our best baseball right now. Really since the break I think we've been playing pretty well. Obviously, Beckham has been a huge pickup for us and we've had some guys step up. Also, some guys are having career years this year, like Schoop, and obviously Mancini has been huge for us. Yeah, I think if your starting staff can do what we've been doing lately, I think there's no reason why we can't be in the hunt."

Machado on whether he thought he could reach third deck: "No chance. No chance at all. Just good swings. Trying to get back into my routine, trying to do the things that I need to do. I got a good pitch to hit."

Machado on offense: "You know we've got to continue doing what we're doing. We're playing good defense, good offense and the pitching's doing well. So we've got to keep doing that, keep playing as a team. Keep passing the baton.

"Beckham started off the game with a home run that got us going and started our offense going. The next inning, we came up and just got hits, hits, hits until it led to a big home run. We've just got to keep doing that. The little things are going to take us to the next level and we keep playing as a team."

Machado on people counting team out: "You know what? We're just trying to play baseball. That's the only thing we can control right now. We've had an up-and-down season and it's been tough, injuries, guys not producing how well they're supposed to be. There've been a lot of obstacles we've had to overcome, so at this point, we just got to keep playing baseball, doing what we're doing and try to keep it simple and not think about how many games we have to win. Just think about it day-by-day, win-by-win and out-by-out and I think if we do that we can surprise some people."

Manager Buck Showalter on Gausman escaping jam in first: "I told him when I took him out of the game, 'That's the ballgame. You won the game in the bottom of the first.' A lot happened between then and the end. That was huge. To see a guy back off the mound, collect himself and just try to minimize the damage and get us back in the dugout, that was huge."

Showalter on whether he's happy to be 4-4 on trip: "I don't know if happy is the word. We've got a chance to have a good road trip. (Miguel) Castro pitched two important innings tonight to get our bullpen back on its feet for the next two days with an off-day behind it. That bodes well for an extended period of time because we got seven out of Kevin and two there. That was big for us.

"I'm more about, tomorrow is going to be another game that's going to be a challenge. They're competing for the same thing we are and we caught them on a down night."

Showalter on Gallardo: "I'm not going to ... Yovani's a good teammate, good man, been pitching better for them. He just got some balls out over the plate uncharacteristically. He was carrying more fastball and just never really got into real good sequence."

Showalter on Machado slams: "You look at where he is statistically and where he was, it just tells you how much he's been grinding. I know when he got here last night, his wife was with him, and Yonder's here. Whatever they fed him last night, I hope they can again. I don't know if they fed him or not. I know he was looking forward to seeing ... Doesn't Yonder have a new baby? I knew he was looking forward to seeing that. He's been swinging the bat well for us. He's dug out of a big hole."

Showalter on Davis responding well to hitting seventh: "I don't know about responding. What would you do? It's just like both of them (Davis and Trumbo) have said to me, 'The other guys are outperforming us.' It's that time of year. It doesn't matter to these guys that much.

"One of the challenges is trying to figure out who's going to hit ninth every night because they all the ability to hit in different spots in the order. As long as we keep our ego out of it, we can present some real challenges in the batting order."

Showalter on Jones moving up to fifth on all-time hits list: "I think it's more of a reminder when you're talking about all these great Baltimore players, Adam's name is mentioned in there, too. And he could have played in any era, and that's a great compliment."