Two homers can’t stave off fifth straight loss

BALTIMORE — The Orioles used six home runs — including two each from J.J. Hardy and Chris Davis — on Thursday to blast their way back into a second-place tie with the Red Sox in the American League East.

Baltimore roughed up red-hot Astros rookie Joe Musgrove, tagging him for eight runs in a 13-5 series-opening win at Camden Yards.

Hardy and Davis — who had been in quite the slump — were joined by Manny Machado and Mark Trumbo in the homer brigade. Trumbo, who set a career high with 35 homers, got the O’s off to a 3-0 start with his first-inning blast off Musgrove.

Orioles starter Kevin Gausman went 6 2/3 innings and struck out eight, allowing homers to Alex Bregman and A.J. Reed.

Houston has now lost five straight games.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDCall him Crush: Davis’ first homer landed all the way on Eutaw Street and marked his second consecutive night with a mammoth homer. He went deep again in his next at-bat, perhaps a sign that the slugger’s slumping bat is finally starting to heat up. The pair of homers on Thursday gave Davis his first multihomer game this season.

Oh no, Joe: Musgrove’s third career start certainly …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com