BALTIMORE _ Suddenly, the Orioles seem to have more effective starters than they can use.
Left-hander Jayson Aquino became the sixth different Orioles pitcher to deliver a quality start during the first three weeks of the new season, pitching six strong innings in the Orioles' 4-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox before 35,457 on Saturday night at Oriole Park.
The win improved the Orioles' major league-best record to 12-4 and moved them to the threshold of a three-game sweep of the defending division champions.
Aquino (1-0) was the second call-up starter to take the mound over the past eight days and the second to keep the Orioles from feeling the full force of the injury that has kept ace Chris Tillman out of the rotation from the start of spring training.
Right-hander Alec Asher delivered a similar performance against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 15 at Rogers Centre.
Aquino's six-inning, six-hit performance gave the Orioles their eighth quality start in the past nine games. The only exception over that span was Kevin Gausman's blowup in Cincinnati on Tuesday night.
If you're keeping stats at home, the starters' ERA over that span is 2.59. If you remove Gausman's game from the equation, the rotation ERA in the other eight games is an amazing 1.36.
The Orioles struggled to solve knuckleballer Steven Wright through the first three innings after hammering four home runs off him in his first start against him at Fenway Park on April 12, but they caught up to him again in the fourth.
They batted around to score four runs, but three of them came on back-to-back homers by Trey Mancini and Jonathan Schoop.
It was the second time this year the Orioles have homered back-to-back. The first time was on April 12, when _ you guessed it _ Mancini and Schoop hit them off _ you guessed it _ Steven Wright. Adam Jones drove in the other run with a two-out single.
Mancini's eighth homer in his first 17 games tied a major league record held by Carlos Delgado and Trevor Story. He had a couple of chances to break that record and nearly did with a long fly ball to left field in the eighth inning.
Mychal Givens took over for Aquino and pitched two perfect innings. The Orioles couldn't use Brad Brach for the save situation, so left-hander Donnie Hart and Darren O'Day pitched the ninth inning, with O'Day getting the last out for his first save of the year.
