BALTIMORE — Mark Trumbo and Adam Jones each homered twice, Manny Machado delivered a tie-breaking drive in the seventh inning and the Baltimore Orioles hit a season-high seven long balls in a 12-7 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night.
Pedro Alvarez and Francisco Pena also connected for the Orioles, who earned a split of the four-game series between the top two teams in the AL East.
Boston’s Xander Bogaerts extended his career-high hitting streak to 26 games with a two-run double and David Ortiz hit his 16th homer to give the Red Sox a temporary 5-4 lead in the sixth.
One night after scoring a season-high 13 runs without benefit of a home run, the Orioles returned to their go-to style of offense: pure power.
Trumbo put the Orioles up 2-0 in the fourth inning, Jones added a two-run drive in the fifth and Trumbo evened the score at 5 in the sixth after the Red Sox roughed up Ubaldo Jimenez in the top half.
In the seventh, Robbie Ross (0-1) walked Ryan Flaherty and gave up a single to Pena before retiring the next two batters. Boston manager John Farrell then summoned Junichi Tazawa to face Machado, who drove the right-hander’s second pitch deep into the left-field seats.
The Orioles added four runs in the eighth. Alvarez hit a solo shot off Tazawa, Pena launched the first of his career off Noe Ramirez with a man on and Jones followed with his 200th home run with Baltimore for a 12-5 lead.
Mychal Givens (4-0) pitched two scoreless innings for the Orioles, who moved within a game of first-place Boston – exactly where they started the series.
Jimenez came into the game looking to solidify his tenuous hold on a spot in Baltimore’s starting rotation after allowing 15 runs in his previous three outings.
The right-hander retired the first eight batters and yielded only one hit through five innings before running into a whole lot of trouble in the sixth.
A single, a double and a walk loaded the bases for Bogaerts, who doubled off the center-field wall. Ortiz followed with a three-run shot into the right-field stands.
Boston didn’t score again until the ninth.
Red Sox starter Rick Porcello went six innings and gave up five runs and six hits, including a career-high tying three homers.
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