O’s make good use of homer hose

Adley Rutschman homered for the second straight game, Kyle Gibson earned his third victory in as many starts with Baltimore and the Orioles defeated the Oakland Athletics 5-1 on Monday night in Baltimore.

Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays also went deep for Baltimore, which improved to 4-0 in series openers this season.

The long balls coincided with the Orioles debuting a dugout celebration in which each player who homered took a drink from a hose attached to a funnel.

“We want to make sure it’s rebranded a little bit: It’s a homer hose, not a dong bong,” Gibson said. “It’s a homer hose, just like as a kid you go out back and you take a drink from the water hose after you play outside playing Wiffle ball.”

Oakland has lost five in a row and fell to a majors-worst 2-8, matching its worst start since 2010. The A’s have scored one run in their past three games and just 28 on the season.

Mountcastle hit a two-run shot to left-center in the first inning off JP Sears (0-1). Rutschman added a solo shot to left in the third against the left-hander, who allowed three runs and struck out four in five innings.

Rutschman, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 amateur draft, homered in consecutive games for the first time in his career. He went deep Sunday against the New York Yankees and now has three homers this season.

Hays hit a two-out solo shot off reliever Jeurys Familia in the sixth to break out of an 0-for-17 slump and to earn a gulp from the homer hose.Gibson (3-0) allowed five hits and a run in 6 ⅓ innings. He struck out four.

Nationals 6, Angels 4: Jeimer Candelario and CJ Abrams drove in two runs apiece, and Washington pounded out 14 hits in a victory in Anaheim, California.

Every batter in the starting lineup got a hit for the Nationals, who won for the third time in four games. Candelario tied it with a two-run single in the fourth, and Abrams’ grounder in the fifth brought home the go-ahead run.

Nationals manager Davey Martinez felt ill before the game and didn’t appear to be in the dugout during the game, although the team made no announcement. Bench coach Tim Bogar took Martinez’s spot on the dugout’s top bench.

Patrick Corbin (1-2) pitched five innings of seven-hit ball for Washington, yielding four runs. Kyle Finnegan pitched the ninth for his second save.

Rays 1, Red Sox 0: The Tampa Bay Rays became the first major league team since the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers to open the season with 10 straight wins, getting a solo homer from former Nansemond River High star Brandon Lowe in the eighth inning to beat Boston at home.

Lowe homered for the third straight game, sending a one-out pitch from Chris Martin (0-1) into the right-field stands. Lowe has nine RBIs over his past three games.