Orioles thrashes Red Sox at home turf to lead in three-game series

Jonathan Villar hit a grand slam, and starter John Means threw seven solid innings as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the visiting Boston Red Sox 4-1 Monday night in the opener of a three-game series. It marked Villar's second grand slam of his career and Baltimore's first this season.

The Orioles now have won two in a row and also received two straight solid starts. Dylan Bundy threw 7 1/3 shutout innings on Saturday in a win over Tampa Bay and then Means followed up with his strong effort. The left-hander gave up one run on three hits in his seven innings. Means (4-3) struck out four without a walk and mixed his pitches well, again being effective with his newly-developed changeup, which has kept opposing batters off-balance all season.

In the last two games, Oriole starters have allowed just one run on 14 1/3 innings, the kind of work they need to take the pressure off of their bullpen. Baltimore relievers then finished it off when Paul Fry got the first two outs of the eighth inning, and Mychal Givens then came on. Boston had a runner on second with two outs when Givens entered and struck out Mookie Betts. The right-hander then took care of the ninth in 1-2-3 fashion and earned his fourth save -- all of which have come in his last four appearances.

Boston's Josh A. Smith (0-1) went 3 1/3 innings in his first start since 2016 and gave up four runs on five hits. This was just his second game in the majors since 2017. Baltimore took the lead in the second when Rio Ruiz and Stevie Wilkerson led off with singles, and Chris Davis walked to load the bases with no outs.

Smith nearly got out of the inning when he struck out the next two batters before Villar crushed his first pitch to deep centre for the grand slam and a 4-0 lead. The Red Sox got one back in the fifth on an Eduardo Nunez sacrifice fly, cutting the lead to 4-1. Boston failed to create many other threats as its three-game winning streak was snapped.

(With inputs from agencies.)