Anthony Santander and Heston Kjerstad hit first-inning home runs, Grayson Rodriguez won his 11th game and the visiting Baltimore Orioles held on for a 6-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday afternoon to complete a winning road trip.
One day after getting shellacked 19-8 by the Athletics, the Orioles got a jump on Oakland in the three-game series finale. With two outs in the top of the first, Santander launched his 23rd home run of the season to right field to make it 1-0.
The Orioles weren’t done against A’s starter Mitch Spence (5-5). Ryan O’Hearn and Jordan Westburg followed with singles, and Kjerstad drove them in with a three-run shot — his third homer of the season — to center field to give Baltimore a 4-0 lead.
In the third inning, Santander reached on an infield single and later scored on an error to push the Orioles’ lead to 5-0.
Rodriguez (11-3) moved into a tie for the major league lead in wins. He limited the A’s to three runs and six hits in six-plus innings. He walked one and struck out eight.
The right-hander took a shutout into the sixth before serving up an RBI double to Tyler Soderstrom and a sacrifice fly to Shea Langeliers.
Lawrence Butler and Brett Harris led off the seventh with singles, prompting the Orioles to bring in right-hander Jacob Webb. Butler scored on a throwing error by shortstop Gunnar Henderson with two outs to cut Baltimore’s lead to 5-3. Webb then got Miguel Andujar to fly out to right field.
Yennier Cano pitched around a one-out walk in a scoreless eighth. Henderson pushed the Orioles’ lead to 6-3 with an RBI single in the top of the ninth. Craig Kimbrel came in to pick up his 23rd save.
Baltimore finished 4-2 on its six-game road trip, and the win on Sunday gave the Orioles a 3-3 split in the season series with the A’s.
Soderstrom collected a double and a single for Oakland, which had totaled 12 home runs in the first five games of its homestand but didn’t add to the total on Sunday.
Spence allowed five runs (four earned) and seven hits in six-plus innings. He walked one and struck out five.
–Field Level Media
