Orioles trying to do better than Betts (O's win 13-9)

Maybe the Orioles should begin Thursday night's game by ordering an intentional walk to Red Sox leadoff hitter Mookie Betts. Put up four fingers and give him the base.

Betts hit his fourth home run in his last six at-bats, sending a 95 mph fastball from Mike Wright over the fence in right-center field to give the Red Sox another quick lead.

Betts saw two pitches from Wright. He really liked the second one.

The Orioles responded with four runs in the bottom of the first, two scoring on Mark Trumbo's bases-loaded single to right field and the last tallied on Pedro Alvarez's RBI double.

At last count, Betts has produced five career leadoff home runs. The press box announcement reminded reporters that the most recent before tonight came on May 31.

According to the Red Sox, Betts is the first Boston player to lead off consecutive games with a home run since Mike Aviles on May 19-20, 2012 at Philadelphia.

Dustin Pedroia followed with single, but Wright struck out Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz, and retired Hanley Ramirez on a popup. He threw 23 pitches.

Considering how this series has unfolded, that's a quality inning against the Red Sox.

Alvarez returned to the lineup as the designated hitter. He was batting .194/.294/.350 with seven doubles, three home runs, 11 RBIs and 27 strikeouts in 103 at-bats over 35 games.

The numbers need adjusting after he scored Trumbo with his two-out double. The average is up to .202 with eight doubles and 12 RBIs.

The Orioles signed Alvarez to a one-year, $5.75 million contract on March 10 and intended to make him their primary designated hitter, with an occasional appearance at one of the corner infield spots. But he's been sitting more against right-handers due to his slow start and manager Buck Showalter's increased desire to play outfielders Hyun Soo Kim and Nolan Reimold, which pushes Trumbo in the DH role.

Adam Jones and Kim hit back-to-back singles tonight off Joe Kelly in the bottom of the first inning. Kim's batting .373.

Chris Davis walked to load the bases and Trumbo followed with his two-run single that increased his RBI total to 39. Matt Wieters lifted a sacrifice fly to left field and Alvarez doubled to give the Orioles a 4-1 lead.

How long does Showalter trust that Alvarez's track record will take hold?

"One hundred and seven at-bats," Showalter quipped before the game. "How many does he have now? No. I don't know. I'm not going to say X at-bats it stops. We sit him against some right-handed guys because, like Kelly's a neutral guy tonight, (Rick) Porcello's neutral. But I hold out hope that he'll get it going and I think it'll be good when he does for a period of time. But he's had a couple periods we thought that was getting ready to happen and it didn't.

"Try to keep in mind there's a lot of pitchers he hasn't seen before that he's facing. Guy tonight, he has. We could use him to get going like he's capable of."

Don't try to sell Showalter on the notion that a player's numbers will be there in the end due to that track record.

"I don't like it when I hear a guy say, 'Well, my numbers will be there at the end,'" he said. "Oh, really? Well Rome's burning right now in April and May and June. I don't buy that. You're numbers? It's about today, it's about now."

The Orioles' numbers look pretty good right now.

Update: So much for a shutdown inning. Travis Shaw led off the top of the second with a double and Chris Young homered with one out to reduce the lead to 4-3.

Update II: Betts homered again in the second after Wright sailed a pitch over Wieters and plate umpire Doug Eddings, who warned both benches. We're tied and Betts is on fire, with five home runs in seven at-bats.

Update III: The Orioles took a 5-4 lead in the second on Manny Machado's sacrifice fly after Ryan Flaherty walked and Kim hit a ground-rule double, but Ortiz homered with one out in the top of the third. We're tied again and Wright isn't doing much to hold his spot in the rotation.

Update IV: Wright was charged with six runs in 2 2/3 innings, the last scoring after Vance Worley replaced him. Worley gave up his own run, as well, and needed 35 pitches to record one out.

The Orioles trailed 7-5 going to the bottom of the third, but Jonathan Schoop had an RBI double, Ryan Flaherty and Machado had RBI singles and the Orioles lead 8-7.

Both starting pitchers are icing their arms.

Update V: Pedroia's single off Worley in the sixth scored Ryan Hanigan and tied the game 8-8. Brad Brach replaced him and got Ortiz to ground into a double play after Bogaerts' single.

Update VI: A routine bouncer from Matt Wieters that should have resulted in a double play instead went through Pedroia's legs, allowing Chris Davis to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth. Davis and Trumbo each drew four-pitch walks against Clay Buchholz. Davis has walked three times tonight.

The Orioles loaded the bases with no outs after Alvarez's third hit of the game. Wieters scored with one out on Flaherty's bouncer to first. Orioles 10, Red Sox 8

Alvarez also had three hits on April 30 against the White Sox.

Update VII: The Orioles added three runs in the seventh to take a 13-8 lead. They sent eight batters to the plate.

Matt Wieters had a two-run single and Schoop added an RBI single.

Update VIII: Young led off the eighth with a home run off Darren O'Day, the 13th multi-homer game of his career. Orioles 13, Red Sox 9.

The home run came on an 0-2 pitch.

Update IX: The Orioles score a season-high in runs in a 13-9 win over the Red Sox.

Zach Britton records the last four outs for his 15th save, as the Orioles improve to 29-22 and move within two games of first place in the American League East.