Zach Britton sets an AL record and more from today's win

On a day when the Orioles scored nine runs on 14 hits, a pitching performance was pretty noteworthy as well. In the Orioles' 9-7 win over Houston, closer Zach Britton set an American League saves record.

Britton converted his 55th straight save to break a tie for the most consecutive in the AL at 54 with Tom Gordon. It is a streak that began Oct. 1, 2015. The major league record is a staggering 84 in a row by the Dodgers' Eric Gagne that went from Aug. 28, 2002 to July 3, 2004.

It also could have been Britton's last save for the Orioles at Camden Yards, as he remains the subject of trade rumors and the team is about to begin a road trip.

"Yeah, I guess if you are going to go out, that's a cool way to do it," Britton said. "In front of the home crowd, feeling good and getting a save and a win against a good team. Hopefully, it's not the last, but if it is, that would be I guess a good way to go out."

It was Britton's sixth save of this season and first since April 14.

"What I feel proud is that a lot of us were here to see all of them and realized how hard that is to do, especially over that long a period of time," manager Buck Showalter said. "You won't see another year like he had last year. You just won't. ... It's the first time I've seen him throw four breaking balls in a row. When everybody knows what you're going to do and you still do it, Zach throws in a little wrinkle here and there to keep them guessing for the next advance scout."

Britton added: "I think it just feels good to put together an outing where I actually felt like I was more myself than anything. I think maybe it took a two-run ballgame to do that. Just get the focus back off the delivery and trying to be too fine. Just kind of let it rip. It was good to get out there and beat a good team, first off. But I think for the record I think it just shows more so how good of a job Darren (O'Day) and Brad (Brach) have done in front of me for the last few years. If you really think about it, I couldn't do what I do if they didn't do their job really, really well. So, a lot of that credit goes to them."

Today, the Orioles had to keep scoring, because Houston was going to. The Orioles held a 3-0 lead and got tied 3-3, then led 6-3 before Houston scored four in the sixth to go ahead by one.

But Mark Trumbo's solo homer in the seventh tied it 7-7 and the O's pushed across two in the eighth for the lead. Manny Machado's sac fly made it 8-7 and Jonathan Schoop singled in the ninth run. Adam Jones went 4-for-5 and the four hits tied his career high. He has now done that 20 times. Trey Mancini drove in two as seven Orioles had RBIs.

Schoop, who had three hits and is batting .307, figured the Orioles might have to outslug Houston to get a win in this series.

"It's going to be a battle because they're a really good hitting team," Schoop said. "Those guys over there, you see the numbers. And we know they're a really good team. They know we're a really good team too. Yeah from one to nine, we can do damage and everybody believes in everybody. That was a good game there."

Schoop's RBI in the eighth extended his streak to seven consecutive games with an RBI and he has driven in 16 runs in that span. He is batting .481 (13-for-27) during a six-game hitting streak.

O's right-hander Dylan Bundy allowed a career-high seven runs today over 5 1/3 innings. Six of the runs came on three-run homers by Jose Altuve and Norichika Aoki. Twice in the game his offense put him ahead by three runs but he could not hold either lead.

"I was just leaving stuff over the middle of the plate today," Bundy said. "I was kind of lucky they only hit two homers off me. They gave me a three-run lead the first time and I blew it. The second time, they do it again. They just hand me the win. I didn't command my pitches in the sixth inning and they got me."

But his bullpen picked him up and the Orioles kept hitting. Miguel Castro, Donnie Hart, winning pitcher Mychal Givens and Britton combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings on two hits.

The win kept the Orioles from being swept twice during a 10-game homestand that ends with them going 5-5.

"Yeah, it's good (to end on a win here)," Britton said. "You don't want to get too far out in the standings. I understand where we are right now. You don't want to watch the standings, but it's the reality of where we are. And where we are in the standings kind of dictates where we go as an organization for a lot of guys in this lockerroom. These guys are fighting to win some games so we can keep this group together."

The Orioles (47-51) ended an eight-game losing streak versus Houston. They are 30-21 at home but now hit the road for three at Tampa and three in Texas.

O's RBI team reaches the Series: With an 8-4 victory over Philadelphia today, the Baltimore Orioles RBI 16-18 team won the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament and will advance to the RBI World Series in Cincinnati beginning on Aug. 3. It marks Baltimore Orioles RBI's second consecutive trip to the RBI World Series after advancing for the first time last year.