BALTIMORE -- This is the Orioles team fans in this city have been waiting for.
A Baltimore lineup that had been sluggish bashed its way to Thursday's 7-5 series-opening win against the Red Sox, with four homers and several stars finally heating up. On the heels of a 10-run output against the Yankees on Wednesday, the O's lineup -- hailed as the team's strength all season -- is starting to come alive.
"It's a luxury anytime you have two people homer in a game, regardless of who they are. I don't take it for granted. It's hard to do," said Baltimore manager Buck Showalter, whose club set a Major League record last June with 56 homers. "You take a guy who hits 30 home runs, that's a good home run year, and you have 600 or 700 plate appearances, what percentage of those are home runs? [Mark Trumbo is] a guy who may get off course a little bit, but he doesn't stay there very long. He's got a pretty good approach, and [Chris Davis] little by little seems to be getting a better feel for it."
Davis and Adam Jones, who each homered in multi-RBI nights Wednesday, went deep again off Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez on Thursday. The former Orioles farmhand, who surrendered a career-high four homers, was tagged with seven runs, starting with Trumbo's two-run blast in the bottom of the first.
Manny Machado, who snapped an 0-for-18 skid, delivered a two-out single and Trumbo -- last year's Major League home run leader -- delivered with his eighth of the season. Davis followed with a solo shot in the fourth for his team-leading 12th homer, and Jones' solo blast, which just made it over the left-field fence, was confirmed after a crew chief review.
"Yeah, it looks better recently," Trumbo said of the team's big bats clicking at the same time. "The first month or so pretty inconsistent, but the recent results have kind of been what we're looking for."
Two singles and two outs after Jones, Jonathan Schoop -- who has helped carry the offense during the lineup's lean weeks -- clobbered a 1-0 changeup for a big three-run homer that chased Rodriguez.
Baltimore has scored 17 runs in its past two games, more than the previous seven games (15) combined.
"You know, since Spring Training, we know who we are. We know what we can do -- everybody," Schoop said of the lineup showing its potential. "It's baseball. You've got to go through good times, you've got to go through bad times, and minimize the bad times."