O'S GO BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK TO DEFEAT M'S

Chen Improves to 6-2 in last 9 Starts

SEATTLE, July 24 (AP) - Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz and Chris Davis hit consecutive home runs in a four-run sixth inning and Jonathan Schoop added a solo blast in the seventh, leading the Baltimore Orioles to a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field in the opener of a four-game series.  It was the third time this major league season featuring three consecutive home runs and the third time that the Orioles have hit four home runs in a single game.  Baltimore leads the major leagues in home runs with 124.

The game was scoreless through five innings, as the starters--Wei-Yin Chen of the Orioles and Hisashi Iwakuma of the Mariners--were firmly in control.  Iwakuma pitched around Cruz's leadoff double in the second and held Baltimore to just two hits in the first five innings.  The closest threat posed to Chen was Kyle Seager's leadoff single in the fifth.  After advancing to second on a ground out Seager moved to third on a two-out wild pitch before Chen fanned Mike Zunino to end the mild rally.

In the top of the sixth, Caleb Joseph led off with a base hit.  Iwakuma appeared non-plussed and struck out both Nick Markakis and Delmon Young.  Joseph was still on first base, with two outs, when Jones stepped to the plate and cracked a 1-0 offering from Iwakuma into the bullpen area beyond the fence in straight away left field.  The two-run shot--Jones' 21st of the season--broke the scoreless tie.  Cruz followed with his major league-leading 33rd home run of the year to make it 3-0 and Davis' 19th longball of the campaign gave the Orioles a 4-0 lead.  In the span of just four pitches the Orioles had belted three home runs, before anyone could get loose in the bullpen.

In the top of the seventh, Schoop--facing reliever Tom Wilhelmsen--hit his sixth home run of the season to make it 5-0.

Chen made it into the seventh, giving way to reliever Brian Matusz after yielding a one-out single to Jesus Montero.  Matusz tossed a wild pitch and surrendered consecutive two-out RBI doubles to Zunino and Chris Taylor, but Baltimore still led 5-2 after seven.

Brad Brach came on and pitched around a one-out single off the bat of Robinsion Cano to retain the three-run lead and Darren O'Day tossed a perfect ninth to earn his first save of the year.

After struggling mightily in the first two months of the season, Chen continues his subsequent renaissance and has now won six of his last eight decisions to improve to 9-8 on the season.

After opening the month of July by dropping 11 of 17 and five in a row, the Orioles have won their last two contests and stand 9 1/2 games ahead of the Tampa Rays in the AL East.  Seattle has lost three of its last four and now trails the first place Oakland A's by 2 1/2 games in the AL West7/24/2014, Bal14-Sea14, Safeco Field

                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP
2014 Orioles           0  0  0  0  0  4  1  0  0     5  8  0     3  0
2014 Mariners          0  0  0  0  0  0  2  0  0     2  8  1     6  1

Orioles              AB  R  H BI   AVG    Mariners             AB  R  H BI   AVG
Markakis          rf  4  0  0  0  .250    Jones,J           cf  4  0  1  0  .255
Young,D           dh  4  0  0  0  .341    Romero            rf  3  0  1  0  .217
Jones,A           cf  4  1  1  2  .296     Chavez,En        ph  1  0  0  0  .234
Cruz,N            lf  4  1  2  1  .307    Cano              2b  4  0  2  0  .315
 Lough            lf  0  0  0  0  .211    Hart              1b  3  0  0  0  .164
Davis,C           1b  4  1  1  1  .220     Morrison         ph  1  0  0  0  .191
Hardy,J           ss  4  0  1  0  .266    Seager            3b  4  0  1  0  .290
Schoop            2b  4  1  2  1  .199    Montero,J         dh  3  1  1  0  .316
Flaherty          3b  4  0  0  0  .154     Miller,B         ph  1  0  0  0  .200
Joseph,C          c   3  1  1  0  .244    Ackley            lf  4  0  0  0  .244
                     35  5  8  5          Zunino            c   4  1  1  1  .206
                                          Taylor,C          ss  3  0  1  1  .333
                                                               35  2  8  2

Orioles                          INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Chen,W           W 9-8           6.1  5  1  1  0  7 100  70  4.34
Matusz                           0.2  2  1  1  0  1  16  10  5.46
Brach            H 8             1.0  1  0  0  0  0   7   6  3.73
O'Day            S 1             1.0  0  0  0  0  0   8   5  1.05
                                 9.0  8  2  2  0  8 131  91 

Mariners                         INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA
Iwakuma          L 6-7           6.0  6  4  4  0  6  73  51  3.54
Wilhelmsen                       1.0  1  1  1  0  1  17  12  4.75
Medina                           1.0  0  0  0  0  1   8   6  2.79
Furbush                          1.0  1  0  0  0  2  13  11  5.61
                                 9.0  8  5  5  0 10 111  80 

Bal: Lough inserted at lf in the 8th
Sea: Chavez,En batted for Romero in the 8th
     Morrison batted for Hart in the 8th
     Chavez,En moved to rf in the 9th
     Morrison moved to 1b in the 9th
     Miller,B batted for Montero,J in the 9th

E-Seager. 2B-Cruz,N(22), Zunino(16), Taylor,C(1). HR-Jones,A(21), Cruz,N(33), 
Davis,C(19), Schoop(6). RBI-Jones,A 2(65), Cruz,N(74), Davis,C(58), 
Schoop(21), Zunino(39), Taylor,C(1). K-Markakis 3, Young,D, Cruz,N, 
Davis,C 3, Flaherty 2, Jones,J, Romero, Hart 3, Zunino 2, Taylor,C. 
WP-Chen,W, Matusz. 
GWRBI: Jones,A
Temperature: 80, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: out to right at 4 MPH.
Attendance: 32,615
Game Time: 2:31