Tough Loss For Texas To The Orioles

Tillman Pitches Orioles Past Slumping Rangers 4-2

Chris Tillman continued the run of consistent starting pitching for the surging Baltimore Orioles.

He excelled over eight innings and the Orioles earned a 4-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Sunday night to compete the three-game sweep.

He held the slumping Rangers, who have lost four in a row and seven of eight, in check until Adrian Beltre chased him with a leadoff homer in the ninth. Darren O'Day got two outs against his former team to earn his second save.

Baltimore leads the Rangers by 1½ games for the AL's second wild-card spot. The Orioles beat Texas in Arlington in last year's AL wild-card game.

Martin Perez (3-3) pitched 6 1-3 innings for the Rangers (54-44), giving up four runs and nine hits. He didn't get much help from his defense.

"Very uncharacteristic baseball," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "Plays that we usually take pride in making we just haven't made them. Sometimes the game finds you in that position. We're going to keep grinding."

Texas scored in the fifth on Ian Kinsler's RBI single to right, but Murphy got caught in a rundown between third and home and was tagged out by Wieters. That made it twice in three games that a Rangers runner was thrown out after rounding third and trying to get back to the bag.

Beltre's home run was the first by a Rangers player since his two-run shot in the ninth inning against Detroit on July 13.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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