Slugfest at the Yard: O's go homerless, but score season-high 13 to win

The first three innings of tonight's game ended with the Orioles leading Boston 8-7 and produced a few questions. Just how many runs did these teams intend to score tonight? How many more homers would Mookie Betts hit? How many homers would Boston hit before the Orioles got their first in this series? Would this game end before breakfast?

There were other, but those were some of the highlights.

When it was finally over, after 3 hours, 58 minutes, the Orioles had picked up an important 13-9 win and will tomorrow have a chance to split this four-game series. The Orioles won for the third time in 10 games to improve to 29-22 and pull within two games of the Red Sox, who fall to 32-21.

With the game tied 8-8 in the last of the sixth, the O's scored twice off Clay Buchholz to get the lead. Buchholz started that inning by issuing four-pitch walks to Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo. Then second baseman Dustin Pedroia botched a likely double play ball for an error and the go-ahead run scored. A Ryan Flaherty groundout made it 10-8.

The O's added three more runs off Buchholz and Matt Barnes in the seventh to open a 13-8 lead. That inning featured a Matt Wieters two-run single and a Jonathan Schoop RBI single.

In those very wild first three innings, the Orioles led 4-1 after the first, 5-4 after the second and 8-7 after the third, when each team scored three runs. O's starter Mike Wright allowed seven hits and six runs and gave up four home runs over 2 2/3 innings. Boston starter Joe Kelly gave up seven hits and seven runs over 2 1/3 innings.

O's pitchers threw 107 pitches in the first three frames and Boston pitchers threw 73. Wright had allowed one homer in 25 innings at home this year before giving up four tonight and left wtih his ERA at 5.88. He has allowed 16 runs in three starts and 10 2/3 career innings versus Boston.

After hitting three homers last night, Betts hit solo homers in the first two innings tonight. He also homered in the first two innings last night. That gave him five homers in seven at-bats through the third inning. This was his third multi-homer game of the year and and fifth of his career.

The Orioles produced a season-high total in runs and drew nine walks. Six different players drove in runs. Hyun Soo Kim and Pedro Alvarez had three hits each. Wieters had three RBIs. The O's got two RBIs each by Manny Machado, Schoop, Flaherty and Trumbo. The Orioles scored 13 runs without a home run and have been outhomered 12-0 in this series. Boston hit five homers tonight and lost.

In the series finale tomorrow night, Ubaldo Jimenez (2-6, 6.36 ERA) pitches against right-hander Rick Porcello (7-2, 3.68 ERA).