O's go back-to-back-to-back -- for 2nd time this season!

SAN DIEGO -- The Orioles had already hit back-to-back-to-back home runs once this season. Left-hander Nestor Cortes had already given up back-to-back-to-back home runs once this season.

Guess what happened Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park?

Baltimore tagged Cortes for three consecutive homers during the third inning of the O’s 7-5 sweep-sealing win vs. the Padres, as Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo and Alex Jackson achieved the feat. Jackson’s blast chased Cortes, who previously gave up a leadoff home run to Jackson Holliday in the first.

“I’m pretty sure it’s not an easy park to hit some homers at. I know during the day it flies a little better,” Mayo said. “But it’s a really hard league that we play in and any time you can string together a few hits in a row and those hits happen to be homers, it’s really nice and gratifying.”

It’s the first time the Orioles have hit back-to-back-to-back home runs twice in the same season. Gary Sánchez, Ramón Urías and Ryan O'Hearn did so on June 24, when the trio all went deep off Rangers right-hander Chris Martin in a 6-5 loss at Camden Yards.

Baltimore has gone back-to-back-to-back 13 times in team history (since 1954). Before this year, it hadn’t happened since Aug. 6, 2017, when Jonathan Schoop, Chris Davis and Trey Mancini did it against Tigers righty Aníbal Sánchez in the first inning of a 12-3 win.

Cortes yielded three consecutive homers in his season debut at the Yankees on March 29, when he was pitching for the Brewers. The 30-year-old southpaw gave up long balls to Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge to open the bottom of the first inning in an eventual 20-9 romp.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Cortes became only the second pitcher since 1900 to allow three straight home runs multiple times in a season, joining Don Newcombe, who did so for the Dodgers in 1957.

“I don’t want to speak for everybody, but I was just looking for something up in the zone, something I can hit to the big part of the field,” Mayo said of the Orioles’ game plan against Cortes. “He’s sneaky, he’s got some good stuff, and we were able to get to him."

Cowser began Wednesday’s trifecta with a three-run home run that traveled a Statcast-projected 420 feet and came shortly after Ryan Mountcastle drew a leadoff walk and Emmanuel Rivera knocked a single. It was Cowser’s 13th homer of the season and his fourth in 13 games since Aug. 22.

Then, Mayo swatted his seventh career home run, which went 401 feet to center. Finally, Jackson belted his career-high fifth homer of the year -- a 406-foot shot to center.

With Holliday slugging a 407-foot home run to open the game, the Orioles recorded 1,634 feet of home runs against Cortes. Their six-run third gave a 7-0 lead to left-hander Cade Povich, who didn’t allow a run over the first five innings before allowing four runs without recording an out in the sixth.

“You love that. I mean, it makes it easy,” Povich said of the early run support. “For the most part, the rest of the game, I threw a ton of fastballs just in the zone, trying to get guys to swing early and get the at-bats over with so that our offense could come back in and kind of keep that momentum going.”

Baltimore (64-76) has experienced a disappointing season, but it was a successful series against San Diego (76-64). The O’s won all three games against a postseason-caliber team, earning their sixth sweep of the year to cap a 4-2 West Coast road trip that also featured a series loss in San Francisco.

As the Orioles continue to try to play spoiler down the stretch, their goal is to also build positive momentum toward 2026, when they’ll aim to return to postseason contention.

“We’ve been on the other side of this the last couple of years. Talking to their coaches a little bit today, there is a lot of pressure over there,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “For us, we have the ability to play kind of loose and free. Now, I do think that going forward for the Baltimore Orioles, when we are back to playoff contention, we need to continue to play loose and free.

“In a lot of ways, that starts with the manager’s seat and the staff and everybody in that room. We’ve got to continue the vibe of making good mistakes OK and staying aggressive, and I think if you can do that, you have the ability to maintain it.”