Orioles tie record for HRs allowed, beat Royals
ORIOLES 8, ROYALS 1
BALTIMORE — In his trying first season as the Orioles’ manager, Brandon Hyde was not the least bit concerned about his team tying a dubious record on a night it cruised to an easy victory.
Baltimore matched a major league mark by allowing its 258th home run this season, but the Orioles hit four of their own in an 8-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.
“We’ve given up a ton of homers,” Hyde said. “What’s the record … 258? So, if it’s 259 or 330, I don’t care. I just want us to get better on the mound and obviously finish this year and go into next year trying to do a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark and staying off the barrel, but home runs are up. … We’re all tired of seeing them and hopefully we can get better going forward.”
Anthony Santander and Renato Nunez hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning for Baltimore, which won its first series since July 25-27 at the Los Angeles Angels.
Jonathan Villar opened the scoring with a two-run shot, while Hanser Alberto put the game away with a three-run blast in the sixth.
Whit Merrifield homered leading off the third for Kansas City. The 2016 Cincinnati Reds owned the previous record for home runs allowed in a season, but the Orioles have 35 games to surpass them.
Aaron Brooks (3-7) picked up his first win in eight starts with the Orioles since being claimed on waivers from Oakland on July 6. He allowed 1 run and 7 hits with 4 strikeouts over 5 innings. It was also his first victory since April 11.
Villar put the Orioles ahead 2-0 in the second with his home run off Mike Montgomery (3-6), whose streak of 14 consecutive scoreless innings was snapped. Stevie Wilkerson later hit an RBI double. He finished with a career-high three hits.
“Credit them,” Montgomery said. “They had a good game plan, they did a good job of making me work, chasing pitches that I wanted them to chase. I wasn’t executing pitches as well as I have the last few weeks, but that happens. They did a good job, just trying to battle.” WHITE SOX 4, TWINS 0 Lucas Giolito pitched a three-hit shutout of MLB’s second-highest scoring team, racking up 12 strikeouts for Chicago in a victory over host Minnesota.
RAYS 7, MARINERS 6 Kevin Kiermaier drove in four runs, including a solo home run in the ninth, and Tampa Bay beat visiting Seattle.
RANGERS 8, ANGELS 7 Hunter Pence drove in three runs, including an RBI single in the ninth, that pushed host Texas past Los Angeles.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
REDS 4, PADRES 2 Luis Castillo pitched six solid innings, Jose Iglesias hit a solo home run and Cincinnati beat visiting San Diego.
ROCKIES 7, DIAMONDBACKS 2 Tim Melville pitched seven innings of two-hit ball in his first major league appearance in almost two years, and Colorado beat host Arizona.
NATIONALS 11, PIRATES 1 Patrick Corbin pitched eight scoreless innings and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a three-run home run as visiting Washington rolled over Pittsburgh.
BRAVES 5, MARLINS 0 Adeiny Hechavarria and Ronald Acuna Jr. each hit a two-run home run as host Atlanta beat Miami.
BREWERS 5, CARDINALS 3 (7) Mike Moustakas homered and Keston Hiura drove in two runs to lead visiting Milwaukee over St. Louis in a rain-shortened game.
CUBS 12, GIANTS 11 Kris Bryant hit a goahead, two-run home run in the eighth to give host Chicago a comeback victory over San Francisco.
INTERLEAGUE
PHILLIES 5, RED SOX 2 Bryce Harper homered and Corey Dickerson added a triple and a single to help visiting Philadelphia beat Boston.
METS 4, INDIANS 3 (10) J.D. Davis lined an RBI single with two outs that capped a tworun rally in the 10th inning and host New York beat Cleveland.