O’s power up with 4 homers

Offense surges to support Brooks’ solid outing

The ball was flying out of Camden Yards again on Wednesday night and — this time — it was the Orioles who were providing most of the meteor shower.

They hit four homers and trounced the Kansas City Royals, 8-1, before an announced crowd of 9,872 to win their first series since taking three of four from the Los Angeles Angels on the road in late July.

Of course, there had to be a flip side during this evening of offensive largess. The Royals only hit one home run, but it was that fourth-inning solo shot by second baseman Whit Merrifield that gave the O’s a share of the dubious major league record for home runs allowed in a season.

No. 258 was given up by right-handed starter Aaron Brooks who, ironically enough, was in the process of delivering his best start since joining the Orioles rotation. Brooks went on to record his first victory since beating the O’s as a member of the Oakland A’s on April 11.

He pitched five innings and allowed just that one run on seven hits, but left with the game still much in doubt. The Orioles had taken the lead with a three-run secondinning rally that featured a two-run homer by Jonathan Villar, but they didn’t really break out until Brooks had completed the top half of the fifth.

With one out in the bottom of that inning, Anthony Santander and Renato Núñez hit back-to-back home runs off Royals lefthander Mike Montgomery to give the O’s a 5-1 lead. Hanser Alberto delivered the finishing touch to a rare blowout with a three-run homer off left-hander Tim Hill in the sixth.

It was Alberto’s ninth home run of the year and his second three-run Earl Weaver special in as many nights. His big fly on Tuesday night carried rookie Hunter Harvey to his first major league victory. This one extended his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games.

Santander’s home run was his 12th and Núñez’s was his 28th, just one behind team leader Trey Mancini. Villar hit No. 17 and — like Núñez, Stevie Wilkerson and Richie Martin — reached base three times. Wilkerson had three hits and drove in a run with an RBI double.

On a rare night when the Orioles could have gotten by with a less efficient performance by the bullpen, three relievers (Paul Fry, Shawn Armstrong and Rick Bleier) threw hitless outings.