Dustin Pedroia homered twice and had a season-high five RBIs to back a dominant pitching performance by rookie Henry Owens, and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Baltimore Orioles 10-1 Wednesday night to avert a three-game sweep.
David Ortiz also went deep for the last-place Red Sox, his 35th homer of the season and 501st of his career.
Making his eighth big league start, Owens (3-2) gave up six hits over 7 2-3 shutout innings. The 23-year-old lefty struck out four, walked none and reduced his ERA from 5.25 to 4.33.
Pedroia hit a two-run drive off Mike Wright (2-5) in the third and a three-run shot against Jorge Rondon in the fourth to stake Boston to a 9-0 lead.
One year earlier on this date, the Orioles clinched their first AL East title since 1997. In this one, Baltimore took a step backward in its long-shot bid to snag the second AL wild card.
The Orioles had won six of their previous seven games following a season-defining 3-15 stretch.
Making his first career appearance against Boston, Wright fell behind when Ortiz homered to deep center on a 2-2 pitch.
Brock Holt singled in a run before Pedroia connected in a three-run third, and Boston added five runs in the fourth.
That was more than enough backing for the 6-foot-6 Owens, who went 3-8 with Triple-A Pawtucket before being called up on Aug. 4.
Baltimore scored an unearned run in the ninth inning on an RBI grounder by Steve Pearce.
