Arlington, TX – The Orioles knocked around Martin Perez early, Chris Tillman protected the advantage over eight-plus innings and Baltimore finished off a sweep of the Texas Rangers with a 4-2 win on Sunday.
Matt Wieters, J.J. Hardy and Brian Roberts each had two hits and an RBI to propel the offense and Baltimore to its seventh victory in eight games. Manny Machado knocked in a run as well in the triumph.
Tillman (12-3) was a late addition to the All-Star Game and proved his worth by fanning seven and limiting Texas to two runs on six hits and three walks over his impressive outing. The righty has won nine of his last 10 decisions.
"It was a real mature outing for him," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said of Tillman.
Adrian Beltre reached him for a home run in the ninth, but Brian Matusz and Darren O'Day pieced together the last three outs, with the latter earning the save to send Texas to its seventh loss in eight games.
Perez (3-3) surrendered all four runs between the second and fourth innings, giving up nine hits over 6 1/3 frames. Ian Kinsler had two hits and knocked in a run for the Rangers, who have lost five straight to the Orioles.
The first five Orioles reached base in the second, paving the way to a pair of runs. Wieters followed a leadoff double from Chris Davis with an RBI single, and three batters later, Roberts plated a run with a bases-loaded hit.
Perez then served up consecutive two-out doubles to Wieters and Hardy in the third, allowing Baltimore to stretch its lead to 3-0.
Another double, this one from Roberts to start the fourth, led to the team's fourth run. He was bumped over to third on a sac bunt, then trotted home on Machado's single to center.
Texas got a run on the board in the fifth when Kinsler came through with runners at second and third. His two-out hit scored Elvis Andrus, but David Murphy got thrown out at home also trying to score, ending the inning.
Tillman was able to work around base runners in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, but Beltre took him deep to begin the frame, ending his outing at 117 pitches.
Matusz fanned A.J. Pierzynski before walking pinch-hitter Jurickson Profar and giving way to O'Day, who retired Andrus and Murphy to secure the win and his second save of the season.
"It was very uncharacteristic baseball (for us)," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Plays that we usually take pride in making, we didn't make them."
Game Notes
Davis went 1-for-4 without tacking onto his major league-leading 37 home run total. He had homered in each of Tillman's last six starts coming in ... The Rangers have totaled only 18 runs while winning just once in their last eight games ... Texas was 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
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