Jul 30, 2017; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre (29) stands on second base after hitting a double for his 3,000th major league hit in the 4th inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Photo Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports
ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre may have made history on Sunday, but the Baltimore Orioles got out of town with a 10-6 victory on Sunday in the rubber game of their three-game series.
Beltre became the 31st player to collect 3,000 career hits when he doubled in the fourth inning.
However, the Orioles (50-54) got to Rangers starter Martin Perez (5-9) his second time through the Baltimore lineup, tagging Perez with eight earned runs before he was lifted in favor of reliever Jeremy Jeffress in the fifth.
Sunday’s win at Globe Life Park gave the Orioles two wins in the three-game weekend series between the two teams struggling to stay relevant in the wild-card race.
The game was scoreless when Manny Machado led off the top of the fourth with a double into the left field corner, and Perez walked Johnathan Schoop one batter later to put two Orioles on with no one out. Designated hitter Trey Mancini, who came into the game 5-for-7 lifetime against Perez, poked his second hit of the game through the right side of the infield to bring in the first run of the game.
Welington Castillo and former Ranger Chris Davis kept the hit parade going, plating Schoop and Mancini with RBI singles, and the Orioles opened up a 4-0 lead after Ruben Tejada’s RBI fielder’s choice.
Beltre’s double down the third base line off Wade Miley (5-9) in the bottom of the fourth inning pushed him to the 3,000-hit plateau. A two-thirds capacity crowd of 32,437 braved the 92-degree Texas heat to see the milestone.
Fans had their smart phones out, recording the moment for posterity. Beltre became both the first player to reach 3,000 hits while in a Rangers uniform, and the first player to reach the milestone playing in Arlington.
Beltre also became the first Dominican-born player to reach 3,000 hits, and the double was Beltre’s 605th, tying Brewers great Paul Molitor for 14th on the all-time doubles list.
At age 38, in his 20th season, Beltre is hitting .309. He came into Sunday’s game batting .348 in his last six games and went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
Two batters later, Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor singled to drive in Beltre and Nomar Mazara, who drew a walk before Beltre’s historic at-bat, to cut the Orioles’ lead to 4-2.
Odor would go on to homer twice, in the sixth and eighth innings, but all those strokes did was pull the Rangers (50-54) to within 10-3, then 10-6. Odor, the only bright spot for the Rangers’ offense outside of Beltre’s 3,000th hit, had five RBIs in the loss.
Schoop, who was last week’s American League player of the week after collecting 13 hits and 16 RBIs from July 17-23, belted in two more runs on a home run to make the score 6-2 in the top of the fifth.
It was Schoop’s ninth homer in July. He drove in three runs, while Castillo drove in four on Sunday.
The Orioles made it two big innings in a row when Castillo blasted another no-doubt three-run home run to left field in the fifth, this time off Jeffress. The Orioles scored five more in the fifth to open up a 9-2 lead.
The Orioles are 6-1 against the Rangers this year.
NOTES: Rangers 3B Adrian Beltre became 16th right-handed batter record 3,000 career. … Orioles DH Trey Mancini came into the game 5-for-7 lifetime against Rangers starter Martin Perez and continued that hot streak with hits in his first two at-bats, the second of which plated Manny Machado for the first run of the game. … Rangers 2B Rougned Odor’s two home runs gave him his seventh career multi-homer game, and his fourth this season. … Orioles starter Wade Miley went just five innings but gave up just two earned runs to earn his fifth win of the season. … Orioles closer Zach Britton converted his 57th straight save opportunity by striking out RF Nomar Mazara and getting Beltre to ground out to short to end the game.
