HOUSTON _ The Orioles scored enough runs to win Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park, their power bats finally bulking up against one of the game's top starters, Justin Verlander.
But the team's overworked bullpen, which was handed a one-run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, allowed seven runs in three innings in a 10-6 loss to the defending World Series champion Houston Astros.
The loss was the Orioles' fourth straight since winning on Opening Day in extra innings.
A fourth straight start of five or innings or less left a pair of Rule 5 draft relievers pitching in a tied game in the seventh, and the Astros scored five runs off Pedro Araujo and Nestor Cortes Jr. in the inning.
Ideally, manager Buck Showalter would have preferred to break the two Rule 5 relievers in slowly, but needing arms to bridge the game to late-inning relievers Darren O'Day and Brad Brach, he turned to his two most inexperienced pitchers.
Josh Reddick hit a pair of homers, including a seventh-inning grand slam off Cortes that broke the game open, and drove in six runs on the night.
Adam Jones hit a two-run homer off Verlander in the sixth to give the Orioles a 4-3 lead, only to see right-hander Mychal Givens give it back on Reddick's two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning.
Jones tied the game in the seventh on a two-out run-scoring single, a hit that came after Manny Machado sprinted out of the box on a single to center, landing on second after center fielder George Springer bobbled the ball.
Araujo, making his third major league appearance and first in a tie game, yielded a go-ahead run in the seventh on an RBI double down the left-field line by Springer after hitting the first batter he faced.
Araujo left the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh after walking two and Cortes allowed a grand slam to Reddick that made Minute Maid Park erupt.
Cortes fell behind Reddick 3-0, then worked the count full before Reddick fouled off a pair of pitched and then launched an 89-mph fastball into the Astros bullpen beyond the right-center-field fence.
Offensively, the Orioles had shown little life going into Tuesday's second game against the Astros, hitting .134 as a club and scoring just six runs in their first four games of the season.
The Orioles entered the night having not scored against an opposing starter in 27 innings this season, but hit two homers _ and were robbed of a third _ against Verlander.
Jonathan Schoop homered in the top of the first off the left-field facade, and Reddick robbed Trey Mancini of a would-be three-run shot in the fourth, forcing the Orioles to settle for a sacrifice fly on the play.
Orioles right-hander Mike Wright Jr. allowed three runs over five innings, two that scored on Carlos Correa's inside-the-park homer in the first inning on a ball that Mancini misplayed against the left-center-field fence. Wright retired the final eight batters he faced.
