James McCann hit two home runs to help the visiting Baltimore Orioles stretch their winning streak to seven games by beating the Boston Red Sox 13-12 on Saturday.
McCann belted a two-run home run in the fourth inning and hit a solo shot in the sixth. The homers were his fifth and sixth of the season.
Aaron Hicks hit his eighth homer, Jordan Westburg added his third and Gunnar Henderson belted his 24th for the Orioles (90-51), who maintained a four-game lead over Tampa Bay at the top of the American League East standings. Tampa Bay defeated Seattle 7-5 on Saturday.
Baltimore’s seven consecutive victories have all come on the road.
The Red Sox scored three runs against Yennier Cano in the bottom of the ninth but stranded the tying run on third base.
Shintaro Fujinami (7-8) earned the win after pitching 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Boston (72-70) has lost four in a row overall and has dropped its last six home games. Wilyer Abreu collected five of Boston’s 23 hits in the loss.
It was 2-2 in the top of the third when Hicks hit a three-run home run against Boston starting pitcher Chris Sale (6-4), who allowed seven runs (six earned) in four innings. Earlier in the third Jorge Mateo scored Baltimore’s second run on an Anthony Santander double.
McCann followed with the first of his two homers, which extended Baltimore’s lead to 7-2 in the fourth inning.
Justin Turner’s 23rd home run handed the Red Sox a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but the Orioles sliced that deficit in half in the second when Hicks scored on Trevor Story’s throwing error.
Boston added four runs in the fourth. Connor Wong got things going with an RBI single before Alex Verdugo hit a sacrifice fly that drove in Enmanuel Valdez. Wong scored on Henderson’s fielding error, and Rafael Devers made it 7-6 when he scored on a Triston Casas groundout.
Westburg and McCann added solo home runs in the sixth to extend the lead to 9-6, and Henderson’s three-run homer in the seventh pushed the lead to 12-6.
Boston answered with three runs in the bottom of the seventh. Abreu hit a two-run double and then scored on a Devers single.
Ramon Urias drove in Austin Hays with a single in the ninth to give Baltimore a 13-9 lead before Story’s two-run double and Abreu’s RBI single pulled Boston within a run in the bottom of the inning.
—Field Level Media
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