Orange is the new blast: O's hit club-record 8 HRs
BALTIMORE -- Manny Machado led off Tuesday night's bottom of the first inning with a home run to left. What followed was historic.
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The Orioles set a new franchise record by hitting eight home runs in Tuesday night's 19-3 victory over the Phillies. Six different Baltimore players clubbed homers as the Orioles became the first team to hit eight or more home runs in a game since the Red Sox did so against Detroit on Sept. 4, 2013.
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"That's the beauty of baseball," Machado said. "You've just got to take it in, don't think about it too much. Take the moment as much as you can, and keep playing baseball."
Video: PHI@BAL: Orioles score six runs in the 1st inning
The Orioles got to take the moment in over and over again as they hit home runs in six of their eight innings at the plate. Baltimore forced the Phillies to use five different pitchers and hit five homers off of Dustin McGowan, the most allowed by a Phillies pitcher since Cory Lidle surrendedered five on July 25, 2005, against Houston.
"We squared up a lot of mistakes they made and had a lot of good at-bats with the walks," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "It just kind of snowballed."
Machado got the power surge going again in the second with a leadoff shot to left-center off of McGowan. It was Machado's fifth multihomer game of his career, and his first since May 31 against Tampa Bay. That was just the beginning of a three-homer second inning for Baltimore.
Jimmy Paredes blasted an 0-1 pitch from McGowan and two batters later Chris Parmelee, who made his Orioles debut on Tuesday, hit his first home run since Sept. 6, 2014, against the Angels.
"Any time you're scoring runs like that and hitting home runs, it's a fun night," Ryan Flaherty said. "Obviously, it's not going to happen all the time, but you don't take it for granted."
McGowan gave up two more home runs over the next two innings, one to David Lough in the third and another to Chris Davis in the fourth. Davis' homer traveled all the way to Eutaw Street in right field, which was Davis' seventh such homer of his career and the most by any individual.
Parmelee hit his second home run in the sixth inning to give the Orioles their seventh home run of the game, which tied a franchise record for the fourth time.
Video: PHI@BAL: Francouer tosses two frames for the Phillies
With the Orioles punishing the Phillies' pitching staff, position player Jeff Francoeur was brought on to pitch the seventh and eighth innings. Baltimore sat in a tie with the franchise record for an inning as Francoeur recorded the Phillies' only 1-2-3 inning of the night. Then in the eighth, Flaherty delivered the record-breaking home run deep into the seats in center field.
"It was fun, man, getting a punchout, doing some [pitchers fielding practice], breaking a bat, giving up a home run, hitting a guy, walking a guy," Francoeur said. "I kind of got to experience everything that a pitcher probably experiences over a year in two innings."
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Players heard an all-too-familiar cheer at that point as Flaherty rounded the bases on an historic night. That home run ball resided in the Baltimore clubhouse following the win. It looked the same, felt the same, but held a greater significance.
Even if Flaherty's teammates say otherwise.
"My teammates were joking around that there should be an asterisk next to that home run because it came off a position player," he said.
Here's how the Orioles' eight homers stacked up on Statcast™:
• Average projected distance: 411.5 feet
• Average exit velocity: 105.2 mph
• Longest homer: Parmelee's first (448.3 feet)
• Shortest homer: Paredes (376.9)
• Hardest hit: Machado's first (109-mph exit velocity)