Rangers beat Orioles 10-4 to complete 4-game sweep

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Texas Rangers appear to have their offense operating at full efficiency again, just in time for a closing threeweek stretch against some of the best teams in the American League.

Rookie Nick Solak had three hits and four RBIs, Ronald Guzman and Rougned Odor homered and the Rangers beat the Orioles 10-4 Sunday to complete their first four-game sweep at Baltimore in 37 years.

After scoring once in each of the final two games of a series at Yankee Stadium, Texas scored 29 runs against Baltimore — including 26 in the last three games.

“At the end of the day there is a guy with a ball and we got a bat. It doesn’t matter who we face,” said Delino DeShields, who contributed a pair of hits and an RBI.

After dispatching the lowly Orioles, the Rangers next host Tampa Bay and Oakland before playing two games in Houston. Texas then ends the season with three games against Oakland, the defending champion Red Sox and Yankees.

“We got a lot of kids up here, first time in the big leagues,” DeShields noted. “This is really going to tell them where they are at, competition wise.”

DeShields is referring to guys like Solak, who reached highs in hits and RBIs in his 19th big league game.

“It was phenomenal,” manager Chris Woodward said of Solak’s performance. “He’s had games where he hit the ball harder but today he takes what they give him.”

Solak has six RBIs against Baltimore and five against everyone else.

Mike Minor (13-8) allowed two runs over eight innings and struck out three to raise his season total to 183. The left-hander has eclipsed his previous career marks for wins (12) and strikeouts (181), set with Atlanta in 2013.

Texas had 20 hits off Asher Wojciechowski (2-8) and six relievers. Texas scored in each of the first four innings while building a 6-1 lead and pulled away with a threerun sixth that made it 9-2.

“That’s probably the best we’ve been in a long time,” manager Chris Woodward said. “When we got pitches to hit we obviously hit them pretty hard.”

It all added up to the Rangers’ first four-game sweep of the Orioles since July 2001 and their first in Baltimore since July 1972, when the Orioles played in Memorial Stadium.

Solak started the onslaught with an RBI single in the first inning and two-run single in the second. Guzman added a solo shot in the third and Odor hit his team-leading 24th home run leading off the fourth.

It was the 25th time this season that Baltimore allowed at least 10 runs. Texas outscored Baltimore 29-15 in the series.

Baltimore has lost five straight for the fifth time this season and is just three defeats short of losing 100 for the second year in a row.