BOSTON — The Orioles ruined the Boston Red Sox's home opener Monday afternoon, thanks to a pair of tape-measure home runs in their 9-7 victory at Fenway Park.

They have the best record in baseball (6-0) and are off to their best start in the franchise's 63-year history.

But while jaws dropped at Fenway at the distances of the blasts off the bats of Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo, far more important was the number of runners on base when the Orioles sluggers hit them.

They were both three-run homers and both gave the Orioles the lead. And both were a result of the Orioles' evolving plan to work better at-bats.

“I think our lineup in general has really matured over the past couple of years, and you're seeing that this year, not only during the season, but in spring training,” said Davis, whose three-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth brought in the winning runs. “Guys weren't going up there hacking, trying to get a base hit. They were actually working on something.”

Last season, the Orioles hit 217 home runs, but nearly 60 percent of them were solo shots, which is part of the reason the Orioles ranked third in the majors in homers but ninth in runs scored.

This season, the Orioles have 10 homers in their first six games. It's a small sample size, but they're on pace for 270, which would break the 1997 Seattle Mariners' all-time record of 264. And while record books are great, all would agree that championships are better.

The Orioles' first seven homers this season were solo shots. It wasn't until Manny Machado's two-run homer in the second inning of Sunday's victory over Tampa Bay that the Orioles hit a homer with a runner on base.

So getting not one, but two three-run homers on Monday showed just how much more dangerous the Orioles' power bats can be if the blasts come with runners on base.

Monday's game was a sloppy one. The Orioles committed two early errors. Starter Yovani Gallardo struggled through the team's worst start of the season. And the Orioles struck out 15 times.

But all of that was forgotten once Davis — who had three strikeouts himself — crushed a 97-mph fastball from new Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel onto the center-field batter's eye, a blast that was conservatively estimated at 433 feet by the Red Sox.

“It's a huge blow,” said Trumbo, who was watching on deck. “Tight ballgame, kind of back and forth, trading one run, tying it up and that's just kind of a gut punch. It definitely gave us a little bit of breathing room.”

Trumbo's third-inning blast, which landed above the Red Sox bullpen at an estimated 425 feet, was part of a five-run third inning against new Red Sox ace David Price that brought the Orioles back from an early 3-0 deficit.

“We just want to keep the passing-the-baton mentality,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “Those are some good arms. It's not easy going up there at 97 mph. I wish everybody who critiques us sometimes could stand in the box and see how hard that is when the ball's coming out of the sunlight through shadows and back in the sun again. It's hard. Forget spin.”

The Orioles forced Price to throw 30 pitches in that third inning. They sent eight batters to the plate, and four of them saw at least four pitches apiece, including a one-out walk by center fielder Joey Rickard and Davis' two-run single.

Both Rickard and Davis came around to score on Trumbo's homer.

Davis credits hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh with preaching patience at the plate.

“It's something that guys have bought into, and it's been a positive for us,” Davis said.

While Davis will be remembered for his home run in the ninth, his at-bat in the third might have been a better piece of hitting. After falling behind 0-2, he waited through mostly fastballs for the fifth pitch of the at-bat — an 86-mph changeup — to find a pitch to hit and looped a 1-2 pitch from Price into shallow center field for the two-run single.

“I've faced David so many times,” Davis said. “He's obviously always been a good pitcher, but he's really come into his own these last couple of years and started to mix it up and pitch a little bit more. In that at-bat, I was just looking for a ball up with two strikes. I hit it about a half-inch above my thumb, so I'm glad the bat stayed together, and I'm glad I got over the infield.”

And in the ninth, before Davis became the hero by hitting his game-winning homer, it was catcher Caleb Joseph and third baseman Manny Machado who first got Kimbrel into trouble by drawing walks.

“For the most part, one through nine has had good at-bats,” Davis said. “Guys are going out there, not hacking, but seeing pitches and working counts, taking walks whenever they're giving it to us, passing the baton, as Buck likes to say. I'm proud of the way the guys are playing it. Everybody knows when it heats up, the balls are going to start flying. Guys are going to start hitting the ball out of the ballpark, but it's good to see these quality at-bats early on.”

eencina@baltsun.com

twitter.com/EddieInTheYard