CLEVELAND — Aaron Civale became the first pitcher with 10 wins this season and José Ramírez homered and drove in three runs as the Cleveland Indians beat the Orioles 8-7, extending Baltimore's road losing streak to 18 games.
César Hernández had a two-run triple and Ramírez had two hits and scored twice for the Tribe, who moved a season-best nine games over .500 at 37-28. Cleveland still sits 4 1/2 games behind the Chicago While Sox for first place in the American League Central division.
The Orioles (22-45) matched the eighth-longest road losing streak in major league history and are approaching the record of 22, shared by the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics and 1963 New York Mets. Starter Keegan Akin went 5 2/3 innings, but allowed all 8 runs.
Baltimore jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first before Ramírez got the Indians on the board with his 15th home run. After the O's added one in the third, the Tribe erupted for five runs in the bottom half of the frame, with Amed Rosario, Ramírez, Harold Ramirez, and Eddie Rosario all registering RBIs. The highlight came when José put Cleveland ahead with a two-run single and then managed to hustle all the way to third when the Orioles failed to keep the bases covered.
Civale surrendered a two-run homer to Ryan Mountcastle to make it 6-5, but still went five innings put himself in line for the victory. Hernández triple game Cleveland some insurance that came in handy when the second baseman made an error in the seventh to help Baltimore close the gap to one. Despite the O's' late charge, James Karinchak would pitch a perfect eighth and Emmanuel Clase did the same in the ninth to earn his 11th save.
Now winners of three straight and five of their last six, the Indians will try for the four-game sweep Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field. Twenty-five-year-old Eli Morgan (0-1, 20.25 ERA) will make his second career start against the Orioles' Jorge López (2-7, 5.64).