BOSTON (AP) – Rodrigo Lopez and the Baltimore Orioles shook off their weekend troubles and shut down the hot-hitting Boston Red Sox.

Lopez won his second straight start following a long winless stretch, and the Orioles broke a season-high, three-game losing streak with an 8-1 victory Monday night.

David Newhan hit his first career grand slam and drove in five runs, and Baltimore built a 7-0 lead after three innings against Bronson Arroyo (4-2), who got just eight outs.

Lopez (4-2) allowed just one run and six hits in eight innings.

He was 0-2 in seven starts after beating the New York Yankees on April 10, then defeated Seattle 3-1 last Wednesday.

Steve Kline finished the six-hitter, which boosted Baltimore’s AL East lead to four games over Boston, New York and Toronto. The Orioles, swept in their weekend series against Detroit at Camden Yards, had 14 hits and improved to a major league-best 14-5 on the road.

Coming off a three-game series at New York in which they outscored the Yankees 27-9 and outhit them 52-21, the Red Sox didn’t score until the eighth, when Manny Ramirez singled in an unearned run with two outs after shortstop Miguel Tejada’s throwing error.

Boston, which has lost five of seven overall, has not been shut out at home in 106 games since Sept. 17, 2003, against Tampa Bay.

Newhan, who had six RBIs this year coming in, hit his grand slam in the third and added an RBI single in the eighth off Alan Embree.

Arroyo has struggled in two starts since serving a six-game suspension for hitting Tampa Bay’s Aubrey Huff with a pitch on April 24. Arroyo returned May 25 and lost 5-0 at Toronto, ending a stretch in which he went 9-0 over 17 starts.

Brian Roberts began the game with a double, took third on Melvin Mora’s sacrifice and scored on Tejada’s single. Tejada went to second on Sammy Sosa’s single but was thrown out by right fielder Trot Nixon as he tried to score on B.J. Surhoff’s single.

The second inning began with another leadoff double, by Jay Gibbons. Newhan walked, Roberts hit a groundout that moved up the runners, and Mora hit an RBI single to left. Newhan also tried to score and was thrown out by Ramirez.

Tejada tripled leading off the third and came around on Rafael Palmeiro’s single for a 3-0 lead. A double by Surhoff and an intentional walk to Gibbons loaded the bases. Sal Fasano struck out, and Newhan followed with a drive over the short right-field fence for his third homer of the season.

Newhan entered with a .169 batting average and just 10 hits this season.

Notes: The shortest start of Arroyo’s career was 2 1-3 innings for Pittsburgh in an 8-1 loss at San Diego on April 28, 2001. … John Halama followed Arroyo and pitched 4 1-3 hitless innings. … Fasano was Baltimore’s only starter without a hit through three innings.

Copy the Story Link