BALTIMORE — Wei-Yin Chen won his fifth consecutive start and had a season-high eight strikeouts to lead the Baltimore Orioles to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.
Baltimore has won nine of its past 11 games and remained atop the AL League East. An RBI single by Manny Machado in the third, snapped the Orioles’ scoreless streak at 19 innings,
Chen (12-3) allowed one run and five hits with one walk over 7 1-3 innings. Andrew Miller, acquired from Boston on Thursday, pitched a scoreless eighth in his debut for the Orioles (61-47). Left-hander Zach Britton picked up his 22nd save.
Robinson Cano had two hits for the Mariners and is 115 for 317 (.363) lifetime at Camden Yards.
Mariners left-hander Roenis Elias (8-9) allowed two runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts and one walk over 5 2-3 innings. It was his longest outing since June 28 against Cleveland.
The Orioles took a 1-0 lead on Machado’s single in the third. The Mariners answered the next inning on a double by Kendrys Morales that scored Cano when Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph could not hold onto a relay throw by J.J. Hardy. That snapped a streak of 11 consecutive scoreless innings by Chen against Seattle.
In the sixth, Machado led off with a double and Hardy drove him in with a two-out single for a 2-1 lead.
Seattle fell to 5-37 when trailing after seven innings.
On deck
Mariners: Left-hander James Paxton (2-0, 2.25 ERA) will make his first start after initially going on the disabled list on April 9 with a left lat strain and then going on the 60-day DL with a left shoulder injury.
Orioles: Right-hander Miguel Gonzalez (5-5, 3.77 ERA) will be facing the Mariners for the second time in his career. The previous start was less than a week ago when he did not get a decision in the Orioles’ 3-2 victory.
Jackson, Denorfia debut for Mariners
Austin Jackson and Chris Denorfia arrived in Baltimore on Friday and were placed in Seattle’s starting lineup. They went a combined 0-for-7.
Both players, acquired before Thursday’s non-waiver trade deadline, debuted with the Mariners for the opener of three-game series, with Jackson batting leadoff and playing centerfield and Denorfia batting sixth and playing right.
Together, they help balance a lineup that had been short on right-handed options.
“Obviously you can see it gives us a lot more balance against left-handed pitchers with those guys in the lineup,” Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon said. “It gives us more options, and it also gives us more options off the bench.”
The Mariners acquired Jackson (.273, 25 doubles, 33 RBIs) in a three-way deal that saw them trade infielder Nick Franklin to Tampa Bay, with Rays ace pitcher David Price going to Detroit. Seattle acquired Denorfia (.242) from the Padres for minor leaguers Abraham Almonte and Stephen Kohlscheen.
Jackson, who is scheduled to become a free agent in 2016, said he’s looking forward to a fresh start, as well as a reunion with McClendon, his former hitting coach in Detroit.
“You get to start fresh,” Jackson said. “You get to help a ballclub that is trying to advance, and I like that challenge. I’ve always been somebody that’s up for a good challenge, and I see this as one of those.”
For Denorfia, going from a sub-.500 team to a postseason contender was a welcome change.
“I’m going on a couple hours of sleep and I feel like I had about a pot of coffee just walking in here,” Denorfia said. “I’m really looking forward to getting off to a good start
To make room on the 25-man roster, Seattle optioned rookie outfielders Stefen Romero and James Jones to Triple-A Tacoma.
