Orioles' bats stay hot in win over Indians

Baltimore, MD (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Davis went 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBI for the Baltimore Orioles, who slugged their way to an 8-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians that stopped a five-game home losing skid.

Nelson Cruz belted his major league-tying 15th homer of the season for Baltimore, while Nick Markakis had four of the Orioles' 14 hits and Adam Jones finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored.

Bud Norris (3-4) benefited from the offensive outburst and struck out six over six innings to record the win. He was reached for four runs, three coming on a Jason Giambi homer in the fourth.

The Orioles recorded at least 12 hits for a fifth consecutive game, the club's longest stretch since a seven-game run from May 26-June 1, 2004.

"It's impressive," Orioles manager Buck Showalter remarked. "We got some help with [an] error tonight, but we took advantage of it. We strung together some two-out hits. Swung the bats well again. We caught their staff kind of beat up from the extra-inning game [on Thursday]."

T.J. House (0-1), making his first major league start, surrendered five runs and 11 hits in six innings as the Indians had a four-game win streak halted.

"My goal is to go as long as I can," House said. "I did the best I could. I got six innings and (the coaches) were a little happy with that but I feel like I could do a better job."

Lonnie Chisenhall collected two hits, including an RBI double, in the loss.

Davis, who delivered a two-run double in the third inning, launched a first- pitch slider from House into the seats in right center with Jones aboard in the fifth, staking the Orioles to a 5-4 lead they later extended with a three- run seventh.

Jones doubled and crossed the plate when Cleveland reliever Mark Lowe threw wildly on a force attempt after fielding Cruz's grounder, with J.J Hardy and Delmon Young tacking on an RBI groundout and double, respectively, to make the score 8-4.

Norris, meanwhile, kept the Indians off the scoreboard except for a rough top of the fourth that began with a Michael Brantley single in front of Chisenhall's double to right that pulled Cleveland within 3-1.

After Carlos Santana worked a walk two batters later, the 43-year-old Giambi took a fastball the other way for a blast that just cleared the wall in left and sent the Indians in front.

Cleveland had a chance to tie it in the sixth, as Chisenhall stroked a leadoff double and was on third with one away. Norris worked out of the jam, though, by fanning Santana and retiring Yan Gomes after intentionally walking Giambi to keep it a 5-4 game.

"He had that one inning, really. Other than that, he was pretty effective," said Showalter of Norris. "He got a big out there with the catcher [Gomes]. He bent a little bit but didn't break. He made some real important pitches when he needed to."

House got through the first inning unscathed despite giving up a pair of hits, but served up Cruz's third homer in four games in the second and was touched for two more runs in the third.

Markakis singled and Jones was hit by a pitch to set up Davis' double into the right-field corner that put Baltimore up by a 3-0 count.

Game Notes

Davis now has four homers and 10 RBI over his last four games ... Orioles third baseman Manny Machado missed the game after hurting his groin during Thursday's opener, while shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and first baseman Nick Swisher sat out for Cleveland with sore knees ... Brantley's single in the fourth lengthened his hitting streak to nine games ... Markakis' four hits gives him 1,429 as an Oriole and moved him past Paul Blair for eighth place in franchise history.