O's ride 5 HRs to win over Waino, Cardinals

June 17th, 2017

BALTIMORE -- Led by a four-hit, two-homer afternoon by , the Orioles went deep five times to bash their way to a 15-7, series-evening win over the Cardinals on Saturday.
and went back-to-back in the first inning off Cards starter , while Manny Machado added a two-run blast off the righty in the Orioles' seven-run second inning.
"It's a good pitcher, good pitching staff, and just grouped together a lot of good at-bats," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said of his team jumping on Wainwright early. "I think they know in the American League, and in the Major Leagues, period, you never know how much is going to be enough. You better make hay while you can."
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Wainwright matched a career high in earned runs (nine) and home runs allowed over his 1 2/3 innings, the shortest start of his career.
"You face a good lineup, especially in a hitters' park, and you throw the ball down the middle, they're going to hit it hard and hit it out, and that's what happened," Wainwright said. "Mechanically, I wasn't right today, but you still have to compete. That was a sorry effort."

The win was the Orioles' second in their past 10 games, while the Cardinals allowed a season-high in runs and home runs. St. Louis, fresh off a season-high five-homer game, belted three home runs on Saturday. homered for the second consecutive game, with also going deep off Orioles starter . homered for a third straight game with his three-run blast off in the sixth to help the Cardinals threaten to get back into the game.

"I think it's a continuation of what we've seen toward the end of that last series and obviously yesterday," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of his offense, which has scored 52 runs in its last eight games. "They feel pretty good about themselves and their swings, and hopefully that's something that we keep moving with. Usually [seven runs] is going to be enough for us."
Miley went 5 2/3 innings and was charged with six earned runs on six hits and four walks, easily outlasting Wainwright.
"This is my first time facing him," Schoop said of Wainwright. "I've always watched him pitch. He's a really good pitcher and we got him today. He made a couple mistakes, and we made him pay for it."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
O's compound Wainwright's woes: For the second time in three games, Wainwright gave up nine runs to an opponent. On Saturday, the O's scored two runs in the first inning before unloading for a seven-run seventh. Wainwright allowed seven hits and a walk in his fifth loss of the season.
"I didn't have location of anything," Wainwright said. "This is the last park you want to pitch in if you're throwing the ball right down the middle with not much action on it. The breaking ball was hanging up in the zone. The cutter was sloppy. And I didn't have any fastball control."

Givens gets a big K: With Fowler's homer moving the Cards' deficit to 12-7, St. Louis followed that up by loading the bases with two outs in the sixth inning. came on to replace , who walked the only batter he faced, , as the fourth pitcher of the inning. Givens proceeded to strike out , the Cards' backup catcher, on three pitches to secure the final out.
"Just go out there and try to shut down the inning and hopefully it gives us time to cover that bullpen," Givens said of his mindset going in. "Just trying to pound the zone and get outs."

Fryer was in the game as a substitute for Molina after Matheny replaced some of his regulars when the O's took a big early lead.
"Tough shadows, tough pitcher. He came in throwing smoke," Matheny said of Givens. "Yeah, the bases loaded is a great opportunity to maybe get us within one if something big happens. Garcia did a nice job working a walk right before that. They were going to all-hands-on-deck at that point and bringing in one of their better pitchers."
MACHADO DAZZLES ON D
Machado made an incredible throw from foul territory to get the final out of the eighth inning. Jedd Gyorko hit a ball to Machado's backhand side, and the former All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner made the stop, going into foul territory and throwing across his body and off of his back foot.
Despite being off-balance, Machado threw a perfect strike to first baseman Trey Mancini.

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The Orioles have allowed at least five runs in 14 consecutive games. That's a club record, according to baseball-reference.com.
QUOTABLE
"No [it wasn't ideal], but we won. We scored more runs than they did. We got a touchdown lead. [] fortunately needed to throw today." -- Showalter, on having to use Brach and Givens in a blowout game
"It's never an ideal situation, but I know what my job is at that point. It's to eat up as many innings as possible and give us a chance to score some runs. Just to save the bullpen as much as I can is the ultimate goal at that point." -- Cardinals lefty , who pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief of Wainwright
WHAT'S NEXT
Cardinals: will start the Cardinals' series finale on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. CT. Lynn is 1-0 with a 3.52 ERA in two previous appearances against the Orioles, but he's been unable to finish six innings in any of his last four starts.
Orioles: The Orioles will turn to in the series finale against St. Louis at 1:35 p.m. ET on Sunday. The righty was demoted to the bullpen earlier this season, and he has one quality start and a 7.17 ERA in eight games in the rotation.
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