The Baltimore Orioles (44-49) got off to a hot start and defeated the Texas Rangers (44-49) 10-2 on Wednesday night.
BALTIMORE, Md. – The Orioles went coast-to-coast, never surrendering the lead. The game was a well-rounded one, seeing Baltimore’s pitching and hitting combining for the win.
Baltimore lead off the game with a bang. Just on the second pitch, Orioles outfielder Adam Jones took a pitch to right field. It was the first time since August 20, 2014 that Jones hit an opposite field home run. Between that span, Jones has hit 77 home runs.
“We took what they gave us,” said Jones. “Manny [Machado] had a good at-bat, [Jonathan] Schoop had a good at-bat and Trey [Mancini] to blow it wide open. We took what they gave us. Texas is a very good team, so we just took advantage of the mistakes that they made.”
In the third inning, second baseman Jonathan Schoop took a double off of the right field scoreboard to drive in Jones and Manny Machado. The lead was then 3-0.
For most of the night, Orioles pitcher Kevin Gausman looked like he was in control. He cruised through 4.2 innings without giving up a run. However, Gausman would give up a home run to Rangers first baseman Joey Gallo. It was Gallo’s 22nd of the season.
The 26-year old Gausman would end his night with a quality start. He went six innings, allowing just one run on four hits, striking out eight and walking two. Before coming into Wednesday’s game, Gausman’s record was 5-7, with a 6.39 ERA. He was able to get the win, now putting him at 6-7 on the year and bring his ERA down to 6.11 on the season.
“I think it’s always good when you have that healthy competition between us,” Gausman said postgame. “One guy is going to try to one-up the other one, in a sense. My defense played great behind me, Caleb [Joseph] called a great game. CD [Chris Davis] made some great plays. Joey [Rickard]… there were some tough kind of soft fly balls that he got to and the offense exploded too. When guys are swinging the bats like we are right now, you kind of just try to give your guys just enough.”
In the seventh inning, Baltimore’s offense exploded. Ruben Tejada reached on a fielding error from Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos and Trey Mancini scored. Then, Jones singled into right field to score Caleb Joseph. Machado singled to left field, with Joey Rickard scoring. Schoop would single to score Tejada. Each run was without an out up until this point.
Later on in the same inning, Mancini would come back to the plate and rocket a triple over the head of Shin-Soo Choo with two outs. It was his second triple of the season and it scored three. Baltimore would go up 10-1. They held on to win the game 10-2.
“We put a lot of good at-bats together that inning and we kept on moving there,” said Mancini.
Game Notes:
Orioles general manager Dan Duquette has been given the go ahead to begin trading Baltimore’s top relievers and Seth Smith.
Mychal Givens entered the game in the seventh and pitched a scoreless inning. Hart came in and allowed just one run. Givens and Hart own 2.05 and 2.79 ERAs respectively.
“Those were big innings that Donnie Hart pitches and that Castro pitched last night,” said Orioles manager Buck Showalter about his relievers. “10-1, 10-2, what’s the big deal? I had to dry hump Darren [O’Day] and Brachy [Brad Brach] got one. I don’t like that at all. I don’t mind getting them back up again unless I absolutely have to.
I need Castro tomorrow for a left-handed starter, to be long with a predominantly right-handed, you’ll see tomorrow. It just kind of fits when Donnie comes in and does that job. When this guy comes in four of the five days, we have right-handed starters. I need [Richard] Bleier available. I need Hart and those guys. So when guys come in and do the job they’re supposed to do, it’s a shorter part that they have to because of the length of the starters, it all plays into the equation.”
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