The losing streak ends at 10 as O's beat Seattle 8-4 (updated)

SEATTLE - The 1969 Orioles would not have approved of a 10-game losing streak. So, on a day the Orioles and Seattle Mariners wore 1969 throwback jerseys, the O's threw their streak back.

It ended at 10 games today as they used a solid starting pitching outing and two homers to beat the Mariners 8-4. Seattle was celebrating the year Major League Baseball came to town, although the 1969 Pilots played here just one year before moving to Milwaukee.

The 1969 Orioles won a club-record 109 games before losing in the World Series. For one day anyway, the 2019 O's replicated them.

Had the losing streak reached 11 it would have been the longest by an O's team since the 2009 club lost 13 straight from Sept. 17-30. During the current streak the O's were outscored 90-37 and outhit 123-79 with a team ERA of 7.85.

But on this cool Seattle afternoon, right-hander Andrew Cashner recorded his eighth quality start and the team's 19th. Over six innings he gave up five hits and two runs with one walk and three strikeouts. He's allowed four earned runs over 18 innings his past three games.

Cashner needed 24 pitches in the first, but just 26 over the next three frames as he was rolling. He improves to 7-3 with a 4.37 ERA after this 99-pitch outing. Last season he won four games over 28 starts.

"Cash was great," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Cash didn't have his best stuff and gave up a run early and was able to go deep in the game and allow us to navigate through our bullpen. (Jimmy) Yacabonis, that seventh inning was huge. Put up a zero there, and if the game stayed close, it would have been a (Mychal) Givens/(Richard) Bleier type deal, but it allowed Bleier to get a day off.

"I just liked the way we tacked on runs. We have not done that at all this year, be able to get a lead and extend it and make it easier on ourselves. We always feel like we always make it tough on ourselves, and today was nice."

For the first time in this series, Seattle scored first. With two outs in the home first, Cashner walked Domingo Santana. Daniel Vogelbach followed with an RBI double to center for the 1-0 lead.

That held until the Orioles got one big swing for the lead in the top of the fourth off soft-tossing lefty Tommy Milone. Pedro Severino singled with one out and moved to third on a Renato Núñez double to left.

Then Jonathan Villar jumped on an 0-1 fastball at 87 mph and hit a three-run homer to left-center. Villar drove the ball 397 feet for his ninth homer and a 3-1 lead. The Orioles had hit just one homer the past five games before Villar connected.

Another homer expanded that lead. Anthony Santander hit a two-run shot to right in the sixth for a 5-1 advantage. Reliever Gerson Bautista got ahead of him 0-2 with 97 mph fastballs, then left a slider over the middle of the plate. Santander didn't miss it. It was his second homer of the season and produced a four-run lead.

Seattle cut it to 5-2 in the sixth. Santana doubled to left, advanced to third on a fly out and scored on another grounder. This one turned into a throwing error by Orioles third baseman Hanser Alberto as Omar Narváez reached and got an RBI. The O's got that run back on Severino's sac fly in the seventh off Dan Altavilla. It scored Richie Martin, who singled, stole second and move to third on Alberto's sac bunt.

The O's got a pair of insurance runs on Alberto's two-run single to left in the eighth. That provided an 8-2 lead. In the first four games of this road trip, the Orioles scored nine runs. They've plated 17 the past two games. Santana's 17th home run, a solo shot off the O's Josh Rogers in the eighth, made it 8-3, and an RBI double in the ninth by Mallex Smith off Mychal Givens completed the day's scoring.

In addition to getting runs and tack-on runs today, Cashner noted several solid defensive plays. Shortstop Martin dove in the hole in the fifth to rob Tim Beckham.

"Not just today, but every day," Cashner said. "He's been very consistent for us at shortstop. It's been impressive and fun to watch a guy excel like that with his glove."

And Keon Broxton ran some balls down in center field as well. He ran a long way to catch a liner off the bat of Daniel Vogelbach in the fourth.

"I thought the play, you know, going to the opposite side to the left-center gap, that was, to me, a tough play," Cashner said. "He's shaded over in the right-field gap and I think it was a full extension jump. That was a pretty cool play."

So a long losing streak ends and the Orioles will not go sleepless or winless in Seattle, or on this road trip, which ends here Sunday afternoon.

Hyde on the losing streak ending: "We want to win and it feels way better to win, but I was more happy with how we played. That's my thing. I just want us to play the game well. I want us to compete and I want us to not walk guys. And I want us to grind out at-bats, and if we do those things, we give ourselves a chance, and I thought we did that today and I'm really happy with that."

Cashner on ending streak: "Yeah, it's been a tough skid. It's worn on all of us, the coaches and players. We've done some things right, we've done some things wrong. We just haven't been able to kind of get that win. I thought the biggest thing today was our defense. Our defense came up today. Keon definitely changed the game with those two plays out in the outfield. Richie, Alberto. Santander and Villar swinging with home runs."

Cashner, any blister issues?: "I actually didn't get a blister today, so pretty excited about that. I wasn't very good locating but I took the side (session) off this week trying to let it heal up. So, looking forward to the next start. Kind of get some work in this week."

Broxton on his defense: "That's what I'm out there for. I'm out there to make plays, to do things for my pitcher. I take a lot of pride in that. My BP work and everything like that, I'm prepared every pitch. I even try to call pitches while I'm out there, and I'm always ready. I'm glad I could help out Cashner tonight. He did a great job, stayed on the edges and made a lot of great pitches. It was clutch of him to do that."