Sunday marks Machado’s first three-homer game and his eighth multi-homer game.
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Machado hit a two-run homer in the first and a three-run shot in the second off James Shields, who allowed four homers while getting four outs.
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Davis and J.J. Hardy also homered for the Orioles (63-47), who top the majors with 168 home runs.
“The team hasn’t been swinging it like we have in the past so, it was a great day to see everything have consistent at-bats and consistent swings”, Machado said. I was leaving the ball over the plate, and they were capitalizing on it. “There’s no excuse whatsoever for that today”. Shields has allowed six or more runs in six starts in 2016.
Dylan Bundy (5-3) stuck out a career-high nine in six innings in Baltimore’s fifth win in seven games.
Much like those efforts, it didn’t take long to determine Shields didn’t have it. He was charged with eight runs and six hits with two walks and two hit batters, marking the sixth start the right-hander has allowed at least six runs. Shields hit the next batter (Chris Davis) and walked another but escaped without further damage.
“If it’s not there it’s not like he’s throwing 98 and that makes up for it”, White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “He’s got to locate”. He reached base four times Sunday, also taking first on a hit-by-pitch and a pair of walks. Ubaldo Jiminez pitched three flawless innings for his first career save. “(Machado) just single-handedly put us in the hole”.
Shields wasn’t as lucky in the second inning as J.J. Hardy’s solo homer with one out made it 3-0.
Machado is also the first Orioles player to hit a trio of homers in a game since Chris Davis in 2014.
Davis followed with a homer and a Steve Pearce double knocked Shields out of the contest.
Rangers 5, Astros 3 • Ian Desmond hit a tiebreaking single in the 11th to lift visiting Texas.
Shields of old: Last week, James Shields had a bad inning in an otherwise fine outing against the Tigers. “I’ve got to do a better job of focusing and making my pitches and we’ve just got to move on from there”. In the third, against reliever Matt Albers, he belted another two-run shot to left-center, increasing the Orioles’ lead to 10-0.
Orioles third baseman Manny Machado hit three home runs in the first three innings of Sunday afternoon’s game against the White Sox.
All three homers by Machado were pulled to left field and gave the All-Star 25 on the season. It sure looks promising as he went 6-for-12 over the weekend and homered in both Friday and Sunday’s losses, his second and third home run in four days after going 32 games without one. He’s ninth player in big league history to homer in any three consecutive innings.
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“I’m trying to get everybody a day (off) on this trip”, manager Buck Showalter said. This whole series I’ve been squaring up some balls, which is fun.
