Zach Elfin stays unbeaten for O’s with win over Red Sox

Gunnar Henderson and Cedric Mullins homered and Zach Eflin continued his splendid work on the mound as the Baltimore Orioles beat the visiting Boston Red Sox 5-1 to open a four-game series Thursday night.

Colton Cowser and Henderson each had two hits for the Orioles, who won their second game in a row to pull into a tie for first place in the American League East with the idle New York Yankees.

Eflin (9-7) is 4-0 with a 2.13 ERA in four starts since joining the Orioles from the Tampa Bay Rays at the trade deadline. He allowed one run in six innings against Boston, yielding five hits and no walks while striking out eight.

Four Baltimore relievers combined to blank the Red Sox across the last three innings.

Wilyer Abreu, who homered, and Ceddanne Rafaela both had two hits for Boston, which has lost two games in a row and six of its past eight.

Nick Pivetta (5-8) took the loss, going five innings and permitting three runs on three hits with six strikeouts and one walk. He had won eight of his previous 10 career decisions against Baltimore.

Henderson, who increased his season total to 31 home runs, went deep in back-to-back games for the first time since June 25 and 26 vs. the Cleveland Guardians.

The Orioles have won six of seven meetings this year against Boston.

Abreu socked his 14th homer of the season to open the scoring in the fourth inning, giving him long balls in consecutive games.

Following a leadoff walk to Anthony Santander in the bottom of the inning, Henderson gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead with a two-run blast to right.

Mullins led off the fifth with his 13th home run of the season.

In the sixth, Santander doubled and Ryan Mountcastle delivered a one-out, pinch-hit RBI single to make it 4-1.

Cowser’s two-out RBI double in the seventh padded the lead off Chase Shugart, who made his major league debut out of the Boston bullpen. The 27-year-old right-hander gave up one run in 2 2/3 innings.

–Field Level Media