Chris Davis snapped a lengthy slump with a tiebreaking homer in the 11th inning, part of a six-run uprising that carried the Baltimore Orioles past the Washington Nationals 8-2 Monday night.
Manny Machado had a career-high five hits, including a homer in the 11th, and Nelson Cruz hit his 28th home run to help the AL East-leading Orioles earn their seventh win in eight games.
Anthony Rendon homered for the Nationals, who lost for only the second time in nine games.
After Cruz led off the 11th with a broken-bat single off Craig Stammen (0-4), Davis worked the count full before launching a drive into the center-field seats to end a 2-for-38 funk that had dropped his batting average to .198.
It was his 14th home run of the season, the first since a game-winning, pinch-hit shot against the Chicago White Sox June 23. Davis led the majors with 53 homers last year.
J.J. Hardy followed with a solo shot, Nick Markakis chased Stammen with an RBI double and Machado added a two-run drive off Aaron Barrett.
T.J. Macfarland (2-2) worked two scoreless innings for the win.
Sports
The first seven innings featured a pitching duel between Baltimore's Chris Tillman and Washington's Stephen Strasburg, each of whom had a solid outing interrupted by a two-run homer.
Tillman gave up two runs on five hits, striking out six and walking one.
Strasburg struck out nine and allowed two runs on four hits, three by Machado. The nine strikeouts were his most in six starts since June 4.
Each team managed only one hit over the first three innings. Machado doubled with one out in the top of the first, and Strasburg singled on a 3-2 pitch in the third.
In the fourth, Machado led off with a single and Cruz drove a 1-0 pitch over the wall in right-center. Cruz has already topped his home run total of last year, when he hit 27 during a season cut short by a 50-game suspension as part of the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal.
Strasburg struck out the next four batters before Tillman grounded out to end the fifth.
The Nationals didn't get a runner past first base until the sixth, when Denard Span hit a leadoff single and Rendon followed with his 13th home run, the first since June 24. He hit only seven last year.
NOTES: Washington's Bryce Harper went 0 for 3 and is 4 for 24 since coming off the DL on June 30. ... Washington's Wilson Ramos extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games. ... The Orioles optioned RHP Kevin Gausman to Triple-A Norfolk and purchased the contract of RHP Julio DePaula from Double-A Bowie. Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said the move was designed to fortify the bullpen while addressing the inning-count Gausman is on this year. ... Nationals RHP Doug Fister and Orioles RHP Bud Norris each seek their eighth win Tuesday night in the second game of the home-and-home series, which moves to Baltimore on Wednesday night. ... Washington played its 12th consecutive errorless game. Since moving from Montreal in 2005, the Nationals' longest errorless streak is 13 games, in 2011.
