McLouth's grand slam helps O's outlast Mariners

Baltimore, MD – Nate McLouth hit a grand slam to help the Baltimore Orioles take an 11-8 win over the Seattle Mariners in the opener of a three-game series.

Chris Davis clubbed his league-leading 40th home run of the season, while Adam Jones drove in three runs for the Orioles, who have won three of their last four games.

"No matter who we're playing we have to continue to play well," said McLouth. "We have to play a lot better than we did last month and hope some of these teams in front of us start losing."

Chris Tillman (14-3) won his fourth straight start despite giving up six runs on eight hits with three walks in 5 1/3 innings of work.

Michael Saunders hit a two-run home run, while Humberto Quintero, Kendrys Morales and Michael Morse each added solo shots for the Mariners, who have lost four straight. Aaron Harang (5-10) was roughed up for seven runs on seven hits in just five innings to lose for a third time in his past four starts.

"It's not what we wanted tonight," said Saunders. "Coming off that series in Boston we wanted to start strong here, but those guys over there played a good game and it just didn't work out for us."

Baltimore jumped on top in the first inning as the team put its first three runners on before Jones hit a double to left. Raul Ibanez misplayed the ball, and all three runners scored. Davis moved Jones to third on a groundout and a sacrifice fly from Matt Wieters moved the margin to 4-0.

Seattle got back into the game in the third as Justin Smoak led off with a walk and Saunders hit a 1-1 pitch just over the wall in left. Later in the frame, Morales hit a single to left that scored Brad Miller, who had reached base earlier on a fielder's choice, to make it a 4-3 game.

Davis, though, got a run back in the home third as he crushed a 1-0 fastball well over the right field wall to become the fifth Oriole to hit 40 homers in a season.

Ryan Flaherty hit a shot to right in the fourth that was initially called a double, but the umpires reviewed the play and changed it to a home run, giving Flaherty his seventh of the season for a 6-3 lead.

Quintero led off the fifth with his first homer of the season, but Jones' RBI single in the home half of the inning allowed the Orioles to keep their three- run lead.

The Mariners kept on coming and made it a one-run game in the sixth off of an RBI double from Morse and a sac fly from Saunders, but the Orioles again answered.

With Brandon Maurer on the mound, J.J. Hardy, Henry Urrutia and Flaherty all singled to load the bases for McLouth, who drilled a 2-0 fastball to right- center for a grand slam and an 11-6 lead.

Morales and Morse homered in the eighth, but Jim Johnson kept the Mariners off the board in the ninth, needing just five pitches to notch his MLB-leading 38th save of the season.

Game Notes

Before the game, the Orioles placed second baseman Brian Roberts on the paternity leave list and reinstated pitcher Steve Johnson from the 15-day disabled list ... Each team has won twice in the season series ... Davis has 101 RBI on the season, which leads the majors ... Tillman moved to 5-0 in five career starts against the Mariners.