72-73 - Rangers ambush Orioles 10-4 to finish off series sweep

If the Rangers could just play the Orioles every day, we might have something here. Texas bullied Baltimore in a 10-4 stomping to complete their first four-game road sweep since pulling off the trick against Houston in August of 2013.

Mike Minor, who had likely gotten used to the bare minimum of support from the bats over the last few weeks, enjoyed an embarrassment of riches today as the Rangers scored at least a run in each of the first four innings and six of the nine in total.

Minor ended up going eight strong on an economical 102 pitches and though he didn’t have swing and miss stuff, he got outs quickly as he finished the day allowing two runs on six hits, a walk, and three strikeouts.

Texas, after falling to a season-worst five games below .500 after losing the first series of this road trip to New York, has never climbed back to just a game below .500 and finish the trip with a 5-2 winning record.

Player of the Game: Every Ranger in the lineup had at least one hit and Minor tossed a gem so pretty much take your pick. For me, I’ll go with Nick Solak who enjoyed a 3-for-4 afternoon to raise his big league average to .328 in his young career. Solak also walked twice and had a team-high four runs driven in.

Ronald Guzman, Shin-Soo Choo and Jose Trevino — meaningfully starting at catcher with Minor on the mound again — also collected three hits apiece on the day with Guzman hitting his ninth home run of the season about 450 feet.

Up Next: The Rangers have Monday off before opening their penultimate homestand ever at The Ballpark against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.