Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora gestures from the dugout before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Monday, May 27, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

By IAN NICHOLAS QUILLEN Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — Kyle Stowers had three hits, including two doubles and a career-high four RBIs, Ryan Mountcastle also had three hits and the Baltimore Orioles cruised to a 11-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Monday.

Cedric Mullins added a two-run triple as Baltimore scored five runs in the fourth off Boston’s Cooper Criswell (2-2) to help open the series with its fifth consecutive win.

“It was fun for me to have a big day, fun for the team to get a win,” Stowers said. “Just cool to have a big moment.”

Cole Irvin (5-2) pitched five shutout innings in a return to the rotation spurred by the Orioles placing John Means and Dean Kremer on the 15-day injured list last week.

Criswell allowed seven runs — six earned — over four innings as Boston lost its third out of four overall and fourth straight against Baltimore. Five of the Orioles’ six hits off the right-hander went for extra bases.

“He was OK,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “Not too many swing and misses. They did a good job taking away certain pitches, and they put good swings on it.”

Romy Gonzalez hit a three-run triple in the eighth off Baltimore’s Thyago Vieira, who let all five batters reach in his club debut.

A second-round selection in the 2019 MLB draft that produced Orioles stars Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, the 26-year-old Stowers has struggled to find time in Baltimore’s lineup.

But he made the most of his 33rd career start, and fourth since his most recent recall from Triple-A Norfolk.

“A lot more comfortable,” Stowers said. “Playing with a lot of confidence, a lot of gratitude. And honestly just playing, just playing the game.”

After lining out in the second, Stowers came up again with the bases loaded and none out in the fourth, and drove Criswell’s 2-2 changeup the opposite way. Left fielder Jarren Duran started in on the ball, then couldn’t retreat in time as it landed in the grass shy of the warning track, growing Baltimore’s lead to 4-0.

Stowers added another double in a scoreless sixth, then drove in two more runs in the seventh with a single against the Red Sox’s Brad Keller.

Irvin allowed four hits and three walks, and twice escaped jams while the game was still close.

In the second inning, he got Dominic Smith to hit into an inning-ending groundout to strand runners on the corners. In the fourth, he fanned Smith looking and Ceddanne Rafaela swinging to leave the bases loaded.

“It took a couple innings to get back to feeling kind of like myself,” Irvin said. “But all and all, battled through that and the last two innings felt like myself again.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Red Sox: Right fielder Tyler O’Neill (right knee soreness) was out of the lineup for a second consecutive day, but was “most likely” to return Tuesday, Cora said.

UP NEXT

Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello will try to earn consecutive quality starts for the first time this season on Tuesday after allowing three runs in six innings of Boston’s 8-5 win at Tampa Bay last Wednesday. The Orioles counter with right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, who tries for his first back-to-back wins since early April.

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