Jonathan Villar hit a grand slam, and starter John Means threw seven solid innings as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the visiting Boston Red Sox 4-1 Monday night in the opener of a three-game series.

It marked the second grand slam of Villar's career and Baltimore's first this season.

The Orioles have won two in a row after receiving two straight quality starts. Dylan Bundy threw 7 1/3 shutout innings on Saturday in a win over Tampa Bay, and after a Sunday rainout, Means followed up with his strong effort.

The left-hander gave up one run on three hits in his seven innings. Means (4-3) struck out four without a walk and mixed his pitches well, again being effective with his newly developed changeup, which has kept opposing batters off-balance all season.

In the past two games, Orioles starters have taken pressure off of the bullpen. Baltimore relievers then finished off the Monday win. Paul Fry got the first two outs of the eighth inning but exited with a runner on second.

Mychal Givens entered and struck out Mookie Betts. The right-hander then took care of the ninth in 1-2-3 fashion and earned his fourth save -- all of which have come in his past four appearances.

Boston's Josh A. Smith (0-1) went 3 1/3 innings in his first major league start since 2016, and he gave up four runs on five hits. This was just his second game in the majors since 2017.

Baltimore took the lead in the second. Rio Ruiz and Stevie Wilkerson opened the inning with singles, and Chris Davis walked to load the bases with no outs.

Smith nearly got out of the inning when he struck out the next two batters before Villar crushed Smith's first pitch to deep center for the grand slam and a 4-0 lead.

The Red Sox got one back in the fifth on an Eduardo Nunez sacrifice fly. Boston failed to create many other threats as its three-game winning streak was snapped.

--Field Level Media