Davis slam carries Orioles past Twins 9-1

BALTIMORE (AP) Chris Davis hit his fourth career grand slam and the Baltimore Orioles got a dominating pitching performance from Miguel Gonzalez in a 9-1 victory over the skidding Minnesota Twins on Friday night.

Delmon Young also homered for the AL East-leading Orioles, who built an 8-0 lead in the fifth inning against rookie Trevor May (0-4).

Baltimore's fourth win in five games was marred by an injury to first baseman Steve Pearce, who left with a right abdominal strain. The severity of the injury was not immediately apparent, but a prolonged absence would be a blow to a team that's already lost third baseman Manny Machado for the season.

It was the fifth loss in six games for the Twins. Their lone bright spot was a home run by Trevor Plouffe, the 10,000th in franchise history. The Twins contributed 7,214 of those homers after the Washington Senators hit 2,786 from 1901-1960.

Gonzalez (7-7) allowed one runs and four hits over seven innings, striking out six and walking one. With the exception of Plouffe, he permitted only one runner to get past first base.

Making his fifth career start, May retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced before losing control in the fourth inning. The right-hander gave up a single and hit two batters with pitches before walking J.J. Hardy to force in a run. Davis then drove a 3-1 pitch into the right-field seats, the first homer allowed by May in his brief career.

Although Davis is batting .189, he has 24 of Baltimore's major-league leading 172 home runs. He also ranks third on the team with 67 RBIs and has played solidly at third base in place of Machado.

In the fifth, Young hit a two-run drive that glanced off the glove of left fielder Jordan Schafer into the glove of a fan in the front row of the seats.

That ended May's night. He finished with eight strikeouts, more than he had in his first five big league appearances combined.

STREAKS

Twins: The Twins ended their run of six straight games without a home run.

Orioles: Pearce's career-high 11-game hitting streak ended. He grounded out in his only at-bat before leaving the game.

UP NEXT

Twins: Kyle Gibson (11-10) makes his 36th career start, first against the Orioles, on Saturday night. In his last outing, the right-hander yielded five runs in 4 2-3 innings against Detroit.

Orioles: Chris Tillman (11-5) starts for Baltimore. The right-hander is 0-3 with a 6.06 ERA in four career starts against the Twins.

HAVE A SEAT

Pearce drifted near the stands in pursuit of a foul pop by Plouffe in the second inning. He leaned into the front row, leaped to make the catch and ended up taking a seat on the concrete border.