Chris Tillman wins his 12th as Orioles complete sweep in Texas

For the third day in a row, the Orioles took an early lead at Texas and went on to win behind a solid starting pitching performance. Tonight, the Orioles led 4-0 after four innings and won 4-2 to complete a three-game sweep, as Chris Tillman picked up his 12th win. The Orioles improved to a season-best 13 games over .500 at 56-43 with their seventh win over the last eight games. The O's completed their first three-game sweep at Texas since July 21-23, 1997; however the O's did sweep a four-game series at Texas in July of 2010. The Orioles have now won five in a row against the Rangers, outscoring them 23-9. Tillman came out for the ninth at 113 pitches with a 4-1 lead, but exited after an Adrian Beltre leadoff homer. He went eight-plus innings, allowing six hits and two runs, and throwing 117 pitches. He is 12-3 with an ERA of 3.84 on the year. In the series, O's starters pitched to an ERA of 1.71. This was the O's seventh quality start over their last eight games, and the starters' ERA is 3.00 in that time. Darren O'Day got the last two outs to pick up his second save of the season and the fourth of his career. Over the first four innings tonight the O's scored four runs on nine hits and went 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Matt Wieters and Brian Roberts singled in a a pair of runs in the first, and J.J. Hardy's RBI double made it 3-0 in the third. Roberts doubled and scored on a Manny Machado RBI single in the fourth. Wieters had two hits and went 6-for-12 in the series; he is batting .357 (15-for-42) over his last 12 games. Roberts went 4-for-10 with three RBIs in the series. The Orioles outscored Texas 12-0 in the first three innings during the series. Now it's on to Kansas City for the start of a four-game series Monday night when Scott Feldman (1-1, 5.79 ERA) pitches against KC's Wade Davis (4-8, 5.89 ERA).