Civale Wins 10th, Indians Deal O's 18th Straight Road Loss
CLEVELAND (AP) — Aaron Civale became the first pitcher with 10 wins this season and José Ramírez homered and drove in three runs as the Cleveland Indians beat the Orioles 8-7 Wednesday night, extending Baltimore's road losing streak to 18 games.
César Hernández had a two-run triple and Ramírez had two hits and scored twice for the Indians, who moved a season-best nine games over .500. Cleveland seized control 6-3 in the third inning by scoring five runs off Keegan Akin (0-2).
The Orioles matched the eighth-longest road losing streak in major league history and are approaching the record of 22, shared by the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics and 1963 New York Mets. Arizona has lost 21 straight road games heading into Wednesday night's game against San Francisco.
Civale (10-2) allowed five runs in five innings, striking out two. Emmanuel Clase worked the ninth for his 11th save. Bryan Shaw, James Karinchak and Clase retired the final eight Baltimore batters.
Ryan Mountcastle went 3 for 5 with a homer and four RBIs, and Trey Mancini had three hits and scored three runs for Baltimore, which has the worst record in the AL at 22-45.
Mountcastle's two-run homer to left pulled the Orioles within 6-5 in the fifth, but Hernández restored Cleveland's three-run lead in the sixth by tripling home René Rivera and Bradley Zimmer with two outs.
Baltimore scored twice in the seventh off Shaw, cutting its deficit to 8-7 on back-to-back RBI singles by Austin Hays and Maikel Franco.
Akin gave up a career-high eight runs and struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings, his longest outing in the majors. The left-hander permitted the first six hitters to reach base in the third inning.
Ramírez provided the go-ahead hit, singling home Hernández and Amed Rosario before winding up on third base after escaping a rundown between first and second on the same play.
Miscommunication between second baseman Pat Valaika, shortstop Freddy Galvis and third baseman Maikel Franco resulted in Ramírez reaching second, then sprinting to third when no one covered the bag.
Baltimore opened the game with four straight hits off Civale, including RBI singles by Galvis and Mountcastle to take a 2-0 lead. Ramírez hit his 15th homer of the season in the first for Cleveland.
Cleveland's Eddie Rosario singled in the second on a pitch that he didn't swing at. An inside fastball from Akin struck his bat handle and dribbled toward third base, giving Rosario time to reach first after initially not running.
Orioles general manager Mike Elias declined to comment on the contract status of manager Brandon Hyde, but said his performance will not be judged by wins and losses. "I hired Brandon — hand-picked him for this job — and he is a partner with us in this multi-year process," Elias said. Hyde is 101-188 in three seasons with Baltimore. "We knew this was going to take some time, and it's going to take some time," Hyde said.
