Texas Rangers Landing Punches in Orioles Showdown, Setting Records

The weekend series between the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles was supposed to be a clash of American League heavyweights.

So far, the Rangers are the only ones punching.

Texas goes for the series knockout/sweep Sunday afternoon after winning the first two games in convincing fashion – 12-2 (Friday) and 5-3 (Saturday). The Rangers led the second game 5-1 going into the ninth before an Orioles scare against closer Will Smith.

Still, outscoring the AL East’s second-place club by 12 runs through two games is significant. But the Rangers do lead the AL West and are highest-scoring team (6.4 rpg) with the best run differential (+124) in baseball.

At 33-18, the Rangers surpassed Baltimore (33-19) for the second-best record in the Majors and are off to the best 51-game start in team history. Texas manager Bruce Bochy was impressed to learn about the milestone, while also remaining grounded.

“I did not know that,” he said. “That’s great. It’s a start, though. Just tell yourself that. We have a lot of baseball (to be played), but these guys are playing so well right now.”

Bochy praised the starting pitching, which has yet to give up more than two runs in any game on this current nine-game road trip. Andrew Heaney was the latest to turn the trick, giving up just one run in seven innings Saturday.

The Rangers keep gobbling up series wins. By taking the first two against the Orioles, Texas is 12-4-1 in overall series this season and 6-2 on the road. The club also owns five straight road series wins, which hadn’t happened since 2016.

That season was the last time the Rangers were at least 15 games over .500 and, more importantly, reached the playoffs.

The Rangers took two of three at the Pittsburgh Pirates and open a three-game set at the Detroit Tigers starting Monday.

“It’s good to hit the road like this,” Bochy said. “Take the series in Pittsburgh, we got the first two here and now we got to keep pushing.”

The Rangers are in for a challenge in the series finale. Dune Dunning was scheduled to start, but he’s on paternity leave after the birth of his son.

Rookie left-hander Cody Bradford (0-1, 10.80) was called up from Triple-A Round Rock to make the spot start, his second of the season. Baltimore sends Kyle Bradish (2-1, 4.34) to the hill, with first pitch set for 12:35 p.m. CT.

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