Jimmy Paredes drives in career-high four runs as O's beat M's in series opener

The bottom of the order did its part and Jimmy Paredes, batting second, made sure the top of the order did as well. Paredes homered and recroded a career-high four RBIs as the Orioles beat Seattle 9-4 in the opener of a three-game series.

The Orioles improved to 17-19 for the season and to 4-3 on a nine-game homestand.

Former Oriole Nelson Cruz came back to Camden Yards and got quite a few cheers, but he silenced the crowd with a three-run homer in the third - his 16th this season - for a 4-1 Mariners lead.

The Orioles then scored three runs in the fourth to tie the game, and three in the sixth to get the lead.

Caleb Joseph's RBI single in the fourth made it a 4-2 game and Paredes' clutch two-out, two-run single to left tied it 4-4.

Alejandro De Aza, who went 3-for-3, doubled to leadoff the sixth and scored on Joseph's double for a 5-4 lead. Moments later, Paredes lifted a two-run homer to left to make it 7-4. He hit No. 6 on a 3-1 pitch for a four-RBI night. He has 22 RBIs in 25 games on the year.

Paredes went 2-for-2 tonight when batting with runners in scoring position. For the season, he is batting .545 (12-for-22) with RISP and .646 (7-for-11) with a homer and 11 RBIs when batting with RISP and two outs. Paredes has also reached base 20 straight games to tie Manny Machado for the longest streak this season.

De Aza and Joseph, batting No. 8 and 9 for the Orioles, went a combined 5-for-7, with two doubles, four runs and two RBIs.

The O's made it 8-4 in the seventh, plating an unearned run on Cruz's error in right field. Steve Pearce led off with a single and scored from first on a single to right by Travis Snider that got under Cruz's glove, allowing Snider to reach third base. The lead grew to 9-4 when Machado singled in the eighth, stole his second base of the night, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball. Machado has seven stolen bases - a new career high.

The Orioles' nine runs were four more than they had scored combined in three games over the weekend against the Angels. It was their most since an 18-7 win over Boston on April 26.

Miguel Gonzalez settled down nicely after the Cruz homer and went seven innings, allowing five hits and four runs to improve to 5-2 with an ERA of 3.24. Gonzalez threw 98 pitches and gave up just one hit after the Cruz homer. O's starters have now pitched seven innings or more in five straight games and 11 times the past 17 games.

In the second game of this series on Wednesday night, Wei-Yin Chen (1-2, 2.53 ERA) pitches against Mariners right-hander Roenis Elias (0-1, 3.24 ERA) at 7:05 p.m.