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Astros belt six HRs to down Orioles

Jun 6, 2013 - 6:22 AM Houston, TX (Sports Network) - Matt Dominguez drove in three runs, and he was one of six different Houston players to homer, as the Astros held off the Baltimore Orioles, 11-7, at Minute Maid Park.

The six home runs hit by the Astros were one shy of a club record, set Sept. 9, 2000 at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. Jose Altuve, Jason Castro, J.D. Martinez, Carlos Pena and Marwin Gonzalez also went deep for Houston, which has won seven of its last eight games.

J.J. Hardy and Matt Wieters each homered and had two RBI for the Orioles, who lost for just the second time in seven games.

Baltimore nearly came back from a 9-1 deficit. The O's scored three times in each the seventh and eighth innings. They had the bases full with the tying run at the plate in the eighth, but Hardy grounded into a double play to end the inning.

It was a tough night for Orioles starter Freddy Garcia (2-3). The veteran right-hander, who threw eight shutout innings in his last start, allowed seven hits, including four homers, and six runs over three-plus frames.

"I don't think I made any good pitches," Garcia said of the 63-pitch outing. "I got my (butt) kicked tonight. That's part of this game. Sometimes you pitch one game you're dealing and the next game something like that happens."

On the other side, Dallas Keuchel (3-2) limited the Orioles to five hits and a runs over six innings.

Hardy singled in Nate McLouth in the opening inning, but the Astros got two- run homers to right-center from Castro and Pena in the bottom half.

"The offense took a lot a pressure off me," Keuchel said. "I really didn't feel too good today command-wise, but after Castro hit that home run in the first, I kind of took a step back and said, 'All right, just buckle down and try to get some quality outs.'"

Gonzalez homered to the same part of the field in the second inning, and the long ball parade continued in the fourth with three homers, yielding a 9-1 cushion.

Dominguez hit the inning's first pitch over the wall in left. Steve Johnson replaced Garcia and struck out the ensuing two batters, but Altuve homered to left, and after Castro walked it was Martinez's turn to turn on a pitch with a blast to left-center.

Baltimore's three-run seventh was highlighted by Alexi Casilla's RBI triple and Hardy's solo blast to left.

Dominguez doubled to center to drive in two more in the bottom of the frame for an 11-4 margin.

Travis Blackley got into trouble in the eighth, though. Chris Davis doubled and Wieters homered to left-center. A pair of walks and a single to McLouth loaded the bases with one out.

Hector Ambriz was summoned from the bullpen and Manny Machado singled to left to make it a four-run margin, but then Hardy grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Game Notes

Houston had lost seven in a row to the Orioles ... Baltimore has homered 31 times in the last 15 games ... Houston had 14 of the game's 27 hits ... This was the first six-homer game for the Astros since Aug. 9, 2006 against the Pirates.