BRADENTON, Fla. — Carried by a six-run third inning and two more home runs by Jake Fox, Baltimore coasted to a 13-3 victory over the Pirates at McKechnie Field on Thursday.
The Orioles, who snapped a modest two-game spring losing streak with the win, are now 4-0 against Pittsburgh this spring. The two clubs will face each other one more time before the start of the regular season.
Baltimore sent 10 batters to the plate in the third against Pirates starter Ross Ohlendorf, who was unable to pitch past that inning. Singles by Brendan Harris, Brandon Snyder, J.J Hardy and Nolan Reimold pushed across the first two runs in the frame. Catcher Matt Wieters doubled home another pair.
Ross Ohlendorf allowed the Orioles six two-out runs in the third inning on Thursday. (Dave Arrigo/Pirates)
Fox, who is making a push for an Opening Day roster spot, then capped the inning with a two-run blast to left. The home run was Fox’s sixth of the spring, and he wasted little time raising that total to seven.
Fox homered again in the seventh, driving in Wieters, who had four hits on the afternoon. Every Orioles starter finished with at least one hit, and Fox now leads all players with seven Spring Training homers.
For Ohlendorf, the troublesome third soured a start that started out promising. The right-hander faced the minimum through two innings and seemed well on his way to finishing at least his scheduled four innings. In his last two starts, Ohlendorf has allowed 10 earned runs and 13 hits in five innings.
“Every time you’d like the results to be good, but I am much more concerned with how I’m throwing,” Ohlendorf said. “I was actually really happy with how I threw the ball today. I felt like I kept the ball down when I wanted to much better than the game before. I threw the ball much better than I did before, even though the results weren’t really indicative of that.”
Baltimore’s Chris Tillman fared much better in his start. The right-hander pitched four innings for the first time this spring, limiting the Pirates to one unearned run on three hits. That run scored on a single by Pirates catcher Jason Jaramillo, who is 9-for-17 this spring.
Tillman also walked three and struck out two.
Pittsburgh cut into the Orioles’ lead with a pair of runs in the fifth. Outfielders Andrew McCutchen and Matt Diaz each drove in one with a single off Baltimore reliever Jeremy Accardo. Chris George relieved Accardo to get the final out of the inning and followed that with a 1-2-3 sixth.
Pirates reliever Scott Olsen worked around two walks to pitch a scoreless sixth, but he was unable to get through the seventh. Olsen, who was making his second appearance of the spring, gave up three hits — two for extra bases — in the seventh before being taken out. All three of those hitters eventually scored.
Up next for the Pirates: The Pirates will travel to Clearwater on Friday to face the Phillies in a 1:05 p.m. ET game. Brad Lincoln, who continues to make a push for the fifth spot in the rotation, will start against Philadelphia’s Roy Oswalt. The Pirates also expect catcher Ryan Doumit to return to the field after a 10-day layoff, due to a minor oblique strain. The game can be heard as part of an exclusive webcast on pirates.com.
Up next for the Orioles: Baltimore will welcome the Minnesota Twins on Friday for a 7:05 p.m. ET contest at Ed Smith Stadium. Starter Brian Matusz will take the hill opposite Twins lefty Francisco Liriano, with O’s reliever Jason Berken and Clay Rapada also scheduled to pitch. Jose Mijares, Joe Nathan, Yorman Bazardo and Glen Perkins are all scheduled to throw for Minnesota.
Jenifer Langosch is a reporter for MLB.com.
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