Galvis a bright spot in tough loss for Orioles

The Orioles jumped out to an early lead, but a second-inning home run by Freddy Galvis and modest rallies in the sixth and ninth innings proved not enough to take down the Red Sox in a 11-6 loss Saturday night at Camden Yards.

Trailing by three in the bottom of the second, the Orioles sought a spark to get them back into the ballgame. Galvis delivered a leadoff home run to left field to cut the Red Sox’s lead to 4-2.

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The homer extended Galvis’ hitting streak to nine games. Over that span, he has five extra-base hits, five RBIs and a .357 average. Galvis has been one of the most consistent bats for the Orioles this season and has been a headache for pitchers over the past few games. He is hitting .286 this season with 26 hits, 13 runs and 10 RBIs.

“I feel really good right now, trying to stick with my approach with the plan that I have. I’m getting good results. Try to stay here and work hard and just let it happen,” said Galvis.

Galvis’ was removed from the game as a precaution in the sixth inning because he's been dealing with a nagging groin injury.

In the first inning, a leadoff single by Cedric Mullins was just the start the Orioles needed. After stealing second base for his fourth on the season, a line-drive RBI single by DJ Stewart brought in Mullens to give the Orioles an early 1-0 lead in the first. But a four-run rally by Boston in the second inning wiped away Baltimore’s momentum.

“You have to stay positive. It's a good team. It's a good lineup. They came in with a really good approach and a good plan off [starting pitcher Zac Lowther],” said manager Brandon Hyde. “The majority of their hits were up the middle the other way and took what they were given and he just had a rough time getting through that second inning.”

Coming into tonight's matchup the Orioles were 10-1 when scoring first this season.

Lowther took the mound for the Orioles in his first MLB start and was immediately put to the test against this talented Red Sox lineup. In the first inning he allowed just one hit to Alex Verdugo. But a two-run homer by Michael Chavis in the second inning unlocked the door to Boston’s offense.

“I made a lot of good pitches, maybe not when I needed to, but I'm going to take the good from this and kind of just dump the bad,” said Lowther. “You can always learn from that stuff but, I know what I need to do to get better, so just being able to work on that in between outings is something that I'm going to take forward.”

Lowther allowed seven runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings.

“I think just not executing in the right spots,” the left-hander said. “When I was missing, I was missing over the heart of the plate and to a good lineup like that you're gonna get hurt.”

Lowther set the bar high on April 25 when he pitched a scoreless ninth inning against the Athletics. Although he wasn't nervous, Lowther was never comfortable and did not have the outing the Orioles expected from their No. 10 prospect.

The Orioles have the worst home winning percentage in the Majors so far this season at .267, having lost 11 of 15 at Camden Yards.

“We have to take the same approach here at home. Try to hit early, try to put on some runs early and then play the game from there,” said Galvis about the struggles at home. “I think we’re going to get better as a team, but like I said before, we have to hit early and put on some runs. That's working for us on the road so we have to start doing it here too.”