Norris wins O's debut, beats former team

Baltimore, MD – Bud Norris didn't have to travel far when he was dealt from the Houston Astros during Wednesday's trade deadline.

He just needed to walk down the hall of the team they were playing against at Camden Yards.

The 28-year-old right-hander was dealt from the Astros to the Baltimore Orioles in the midst of their three-game series. He moves on from the worst team in the majors -- in which he went 34-46 in five seasons -- to one that's fighting in an AL East pennant race.

In his Orioles debut, Norris pitched six innings and his new team managed to win the rubber match, 6-3, on Thursday.

Norris (7-9) gave up two runs on four hits while fanning eight and walking two against the team that selected him in the sixth round of the 2006 MLB Draft.

"There are no secrets in baseball," said Orioles manager Buck Showalter. "I don't think we're unfamiliar with him. I didn't look it as unfamiliar in today's game. We gave up some good people for him and hopefully he'll carry for us the rest of the season."

Chris Davis hit his 39th home run and 100th RBI of the season while Nate McLouth drove in two runs for the Orioles.

"We kept grinding and strung some hits together," said Showalter. "A lot of key hits. It's still a work in progress. We're getting ready to play some of the hottest teams in baseball."

Brett Wallace and Marc Krauss each hit a solo shot for the Astros, who saw starter Jordan Lyles (4-5) surrender five runs -- three earned -- on nine hits over 5 2/3 innings.

Wallace clubbed a 2-2 pitch to right to start the second. Two innings later, Krauss connected off the first pitch he saw with two outs, to give the Astros a 2-0 lead.

However, Baltimore took the lead in the fifth. Henry Urrutia singled to left and Brian Roberts reached on a fielding error by shortstop Jonathan Villar. McLouth and Manny Machado hit back-to-back RBI singles and Nick Markakis plated McLouth with a sacrifice fly to left.

"Jordan just seems to run in those kind of innings sometimes," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "When you look at their lineup, if you run away from one guy, you're going to run into another guy ... that's the nature of the game, that's the nature of the beast."

An inning later, the Orioles added two more runs. J.J. Hardy and Urrutia delivered consecutive two-out singles. Roberts brought Hardy home with a single to left. Travis Blackley replaced Lyles, but gave up an RBI single to McLouth.

Davis crushed a 2-1 changeup with two outs in the seventh to give his team a three-run cushion.

In the top of the eighth, Robbie Grossman knocked a leadoff double to right. He scored after two ground outs from Villar and L.J. Hoes.

Jim Johnson came out in the ninth for the Orioles. He walked Wallace with one out and hit Krauss with a pitch, but got Jimmy Paredes and Matt Dominguez to ground out to notch his 37th save.

Game Notes

Norris is the 14th pitcher to start a game for the Orioles this season. The last year the Orioles sent as many as 14 different starters to the mound was 1998 (14) ... McLouth had his first multi-RBI game since May 2 against the Angels ... Baltimore is 18-9 (.666) against AL West teams, their second-best winning percentage since the league went to three divisions in 1994 ... Hoes, one of the players traded for Norris, had his first career RBI.