Orioles' Kim Hyun-soo hits 2nd home run of season

Kim Hyun-soo of the Baltimore Orioles hit his second home run of the season, the first time he's gone deep in a month.

The Korean outfielder launched a two-run shot to right field off Erik Johnson of the San Diego Padres in the top of the fifth at Petco Park in San Diego, Tuesday (local time). The home run staked the Orioles to a 4-1 lead, and they went on to win 11-7.

Kim's last home run had come on May 29 against the Cleveland Indians.

The left fielder batted eighth in the interleague affair, down from his usual No. 2 spot, but didn't miss a beat, adding an RBI double in the sixth inning for his 11th multi-hit game.

Kim went 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs, two runs scored and two walks, raising his batting average to .339.

Elsewhere, Oh Seung-hwan of the St. Louis Cardinals wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth in the club's 8-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

It was Oh's first appearance since last Friday and also the first since Trevor Rosenthal was removed from the closer's role.

Manager Mike Matheny hasn't yet committed to one reliever as the new closer, but the Cards' two other setup men, Jonathan Broxton and Kevin Siegrist, pitched the seventh and the eighth before Oh began the ninth inning, albeit in a non-save situation.

Perhaps a little rusty, Oh walked the first batter of the ninth, Christian Colon, and gave up a single to the next batter, Drew Butera.

Whit Merrifield flied out to right, but Alcides Escobar's single loaded the bases.

Oh regrouped and retired Alex Gordon to a pop out to third.

Eric Hosmer hit a soft grounder to shortstop and Escobar was forced at second for the final out of the game.

With yet another scoreless outing, Oh lowered his ERA to 1.62.

Broxton and Siegrist have both closed in the majors, but Oh brings 355 career saves from Korea and Japan. The right-hander is the all-time leader in the Korea Baseball Organization in that category with 277, and added 80 more saves in two seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball.

In another interleague game, Lee Dae-ho of the Seattle Mariners went 2-for-3 with a walk in his team's 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at home. He's batting .290 in his rookie season

Kang Jung-ho, the Korean third baseman for the Pirates, sat out the game.

In the American League, the Minnesota Twins' first baseman Park Byung-ho went 0-for-4 in the team's 4-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. He's batting .191 for the season, and is just .053 over his last 11 games. (Yonhap)