BALTIMORE — A day off Monday wasn’t enough to cool off an Orioles offense that has suddenly come to life.
A 10-3 victory over the National League East-leading New York Mets came two days removed from their largest scoring output in six seasons and gave the Orioles their fifth win in six June games. Like Sunday’s 18-5 drubbing of the Cleveland Indians, they got production from throughout the lineup.
A bottom of the order that has been particularly fruitless featured some of Baltimore’s top performances Tuesday. In his first game since being activated off the bereavement list, second baseman Pat Valaika doubled twice and drove in three out of the eighth spot in manager Brandon Hyde’s lineup. Seven-hole hitter Maikel Franco matched Valaika’s RBI total with one swing, a three-run home run in the fifth inning that was only the sixth in Camden Yards history to reach the second deck in left field.
They were two of six Orioles (22-38) starters to record multiple hits, with Cedric Mullins continuing his tear with two doubles and Freddy Galvis having another among his three hits as Baltimore doubled seven times.
Backing Bruce
The offensive outpouring quickly negated an early 2-0 hole after New York designated hitter Pete Alonso homered off left-hander Bruce Zimmermann in the top of the first.
After the next batter singled, Zimmermann settled in from there, retiring 13 of the final 14 batters he faced. A two-out walk in the fourth accounted for the only runner against him in that time.
Since a two-week demotion to Triple-A, Zimmermann (Loyola Blakefield) has made five appearances for Baltimore, going at least five innings while allowing two or fewer runs in four of them.
Right-handers Hunter Harvey and Tyler Wells allowed one hit and no runs between them as they covered the next three frames. Travis Lakins Sr. gave up another Alonso homer in the ninth.
Like Maik
Having struggled through the first couple of months of his one-year deal with Baltimore, Franco surged Tuesday night.
His mammoth homer went a projected 423 feet, leaving his bat at 110.9 mph off the bat, according to Statcast. It was the first second-deck homer at the ballpark since Alonso hit one last September and the first by an Oriole since 2017.
He also made a sharp barehanded play at third base.
