masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe Orioles debut for left-hander Wade Miley lasted just five innings and ended when he took a comebacker off his foot. Miley might have come out of the game anyway, but he allowed four runs as Texas beat the Orioles 5-3 to salvage the final game of a three-game series.
Held to three runs and 10 hits in the series first two games, the Rangers broke out with six doubles and a homer among 11 hits tonight. The Rangers won the season series, four games to three, giving them a home field advantage…

The Orioles debut for left-hander Wade Miley lasted just five innings and ended when he took a comebacker off his foot. Miley might have come out of the game anyway, but he allowed four runs as Texas beat the Orioles 5-3 to salvage the final game of a three-game series.

Held to three runs and 10 hits in the series first two games, the Rangers broke out with six doubles and a homer among 11 hits tonight. The Rangers won the season series, four games to three, giving them a home field advantage tiebreaker in the teams would advance to meet in the playoffs.

The Orioles fall to 61-46 overall, 39-17 at home and had a three-game win streak snapped.

Texas took a 1-0 lead when catcher Jonathan Lucroy hit his first homer as a Ranger and 14th of the season in the second inning. He hit a 2-2 slider off Miley for the lead. The Rangers made it 2-0 an inning later when Delino DeShields led off with a double and advanced on two ground balls. Ian Desmond’s grounder scored him for the 2-0 lead.

Texas added to its lead with two runs in the top of the fifth. The Rangers produced a double and three singles to make it a 4-0 game. Desmond singled in a run on a grounder to right that seemed playable for first baseman Chris Davis, but he might have been screened by a runner. The next batter, Carlos Beltran, blooped an RBI single to right that second baseman Jonathan Schoop could not make the over-the-shoulder catch on.

The Orioles cut the four-run deficit to two when Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez started the fifth inning with back-to-back homers. The Orioles have gone back-to-back 12 times to lead the American League. Trumbo hit No. 31. He crushed an A.J. Griffin fastball 442 feet to center. Alvarez hit No. 16 on a 2-1 changeup that went 399 feet, according to Statcast.

Miley-Throws-White-Sidebar.jpgMiley exited after five innings. He limped off after the top of the fifth when a comebacker deflected off his foot for the last out. Over five innings, he allowed eight hits and four runs with no walks and five strikeouts. Miley threw 91 pitches, 62 for strikes.

The Orioles pulled within 4-3 on Hyun Soo Kim’s first Camden Yards homer. His solo shot off Griffin in the sixth was his fourth off the season. The Orioles hit seven homers in this series – all solo shots. Texas added a run in the eighth for a 5-3 lead. Adrian Beltre and Rougned Odor hit back-to-back doubles off reliever Logan Ondrusek for a two-run edge.

Now the Orioles head to Chicago to face the White Sox to start a three-game series and 10-game road trip. On Friday night, Yovani Gallardo (3-3, 5.70 ERA) faces former Oriole Miguel Gonzalez (2-5, 4.06 ERA)