Wieters homers, Davis struggles vs. former team (O's lead 3-1)

Matt Wieters has two career hits against Rangers left-hander Derek Holland. Both of them are home runs. Wieters took Holland deep in the top of the second inning tonight to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead in Arlington. Maybe those four days off freshened up Wieters. Wieters has hit five of his home runs against left-handers this season and eight against right-handers. Chris Davis struck out in his first at-bat tonight, and he wasn't pleased with the call from plate umpire Andy Fletcher. Davis is now 1-for-14 with a home run and nine strikeouts against the Rangers this season. Nate McLouth led off the game with a single, making him 4-for-8 against Holland. But he never attempted to steal second, and Holland retired the next three batters. McLouth hasn't swiped a base since June 19. He's just not running these days. Return those T-shirts. Down on the farm, left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada has allowed two runs and five hits in five innings tonight for Triple-A Norfolk, with two walks and four strikeouts. He's thrown 65 pitches, 44 for strikes. Update: Brian Roberts walked in the third inning and scored from first base on McLouth's double to right field, increasing the lead to 2-0. Third base coach Bobby Dickerson made another aggressive send, and it paid off. McLouth is now 5-for-9 against Holland. The Orioles couldn't build on the lead after McLouth's double. Nick Markakis, who grounded out, has one RBI since June 27. Davis grounded out, making him 1-for-15 vs. the Rangers this season. Adam Jones drew his fourth walk in the last three games. What the heck is going on here? Jones now has a walk in three straight games, his second-such streak this season. It also happened May 4-7. Jones' longest walk streak is four games, which he's done twice, most recently May 14-18, 2011. Update II: The Rangers cut the lead in half in the bottom of the fourth on Craig Gentry's sacrifice fly. Jeff Baker took second base on Mitch Moreland's one-out walk, noticed that nobody was covering third and Wei-Yin Chen wasn't paying attention, and outran Manny Machado to the bag. Big mistake by the Orioles, and manager Buck Showalter will address it. Markakis robbed Adrian Beltre of a home run with a leaping catch in right field before Baker singled. Update III: The Rangers have forgotten how to field the ball and run the bases. They allowed Markakis' fly ball to fall in shallow left field for a double, and his second RBI since June 27. And for whatever reason, Baker tried to go back to third base on Gentry's double in the sixth as J.J. Hardy threw behind him. Baker was out, and the Rangers failed to cut into the Orioles' 3-1 lead. Chen has thrown 93 pitches in six innings.



Chen still stingy with the runs (O's win 3-1)
Will Chen pitch well again as the O's face Texas?
 

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