Cedric Mullins, Jordan Westburg and Ryan O’Hearn each homered to back six strong innings from Grayson Rodriguez on Saturday as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers 8-4 in Arlington, Texas.
Ramon Urias singled in two runs in Baltimore’s four-run second inning, which ended the night for the Rangers’ Max Scherzer. It was the right-hander’s shortest outing of his six starts this season.
The Orioles went up 5-2 in the third on Mullins’ 10th home run this season, a solo shot off Jose Urena, before Westburg made it 7-2 in the sixth with his 16th homer, a two-run blast off Jacob Latz. O’Hearn’s 12th came in the ninth off Jose Leclerc to close out the scoring.
Yennier Cano pitched Baltimore out of the eighth after Cionel Perez walked the first two batters of the inning, both of which later scored to pull Texas within 7-4.
Craig Kimbrel worked the ninth for the Orioles, who have taken the first two games of the three-game series and notched their 60th win this season, trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies (62).
Rodriguez (12-4) settled down after allowing a two-run single to Andrew Knizner in the second inning that trimmed Baltimore’s lead to 4-2. The right-hander retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced and allowed three hits and two walks while striking out eight.
Wyatt Langford had an RBI double and Adolis Garcia added a run-scoring groundout in the eighth for the Rangers, who lost Friday’s series opener 9-1.
Scherzer (1-3) was charged with four runs on five hits over two innings. He walked two and struck out one. The Orioles sent nine batters to the plate against him in the second inning.
After Westburg and Colton Cowser reached to start the inning, Mullins sacrificed to Scherzer, whose throw to first zipped into right field to score Westburg with the game’s first run. Urias followed with his two-run single and later scored on Anthony Santander’s two-out hit, which put Baltimore up 4-0.
Westburg and Urias led the Orioles with three hits and two RBIs each.
Heston Kjerstad started in right field and went 0-for-2 with a walk while batting fifth for Baltimore after being activated off the seven-day concussion list earlier Saturday.
Kjerstad went to the IL after he was hit on the helmet by a 97 mph fastball from New York Yankees reliever Clay Holmes on July 12.