masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe offense came to life. Kevin Gausman battled his way through six innings. The Orioles came from behind to win.

The O’s scored three runs in the top of the seventh tonight and added two more in the eighth to rally for a 7-3 win over Washington with a 14-hit attack in front of 42,181 at Nats Park.

The Orioles improved to a season-high 15 games over .500 at 63-48. They gained a half-game on idle Toronto and moved four games ahead of the Blue Jays heading into their key series that begins in…The offense came to life. Kevin Gausman battled his way through six innings. The Orioles came from behind to win.

The O’s scored three runs in the top of the seventh tonight and added two more in the eighth to rally for a 7-3 win over Washington with a 14-hit attack in front of 42,181 at Nats Park.

The Orioles improved to a season-high 15 games over .500 at 63-48. They gained a half-game on idle Toronto and moved four games ahead of the Blue Jays heading into their key series that begins in Canada tomorrow night.

The Orioles were down 3-1 after four innings and down 3-2 as they came up in the seventh when they used eight bbatters to get the lead.

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Back-to-back doubles by J.J. Hardy and Ryan Flaherty tied it 3-3. The Orioles went ahead 4-3 on Delmon Young’s pinch-hit single. Young is now 9-for-17 with four RBIs as a pinch hitter. An Adam Jones bases-loaded single made it 5-3.

Caleb Joseph added a two-run single in the eighth for a 2-for-3, three-RBI night. Joseph has 11 hits his last 30 at-bats. Hardy went 4-for-4 with a double and scored twice. It’s a season-high in hits and his first four-hit game since last June 6.

Earlier in the game the O’s got solo homers from Joseph (No. 5) and Nick Markakis (No. 10). Markakis now has nine seasons of 10 or more homers and 20 or more doubles to tie Brady Anderson for fourth in club history. Cal Ripken Jr. leads with 17 such seasons.

Tonight was the just the third time in 22 games the Orioles had scored five or more runs. The Orioles had scored six runs total in their previous four games.

Gausman allowed single runs in the second, third and fourth as he bent but didn’t break tonight. He went six innings allowing eight hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts. He got the win to improve to 6-3 with an ERA of 3.77. The O’s are 8-3 in Gausman’s 11 starts.

Losing pitcher Tanner Roark gave up five runs over 6 1/3 after pitching to an ERA of 2.12 his previous 11 starts.

The Orioles won the season series for the third year in a row over the Nationals, winning three of the four games. They are 10-4 versus Washington since 2012 and lead the all-time series, 29-21.

The Birds have won eight of 11, 14 of 21 and 26 of their last 39 games. They are 33-23 in road games.

In the opener of the three-game series at second-place Toronto on Tuesday night, Bud Norris (8-7, 3.69 ERA) faces left-hander Mark Buehrle (11-7, 3.11 ERA).