Miley makes sure Orioles left with southpaw in rotation (O's lose 5-3)

Wade Miley's first pitch tonight as an Oriole missed the strike zone. The fifth one found it, producing a leadoff double for Shin-Soo Choo with a 3-1 count.

Miley has a 6.63 ERA in the first inning this season, but he stranded Choo at third base by striking out Ian Desmond, retiring Carlos Beltran on a ground ball and striking out Adrian Beltre.

Miley threw 20 pitches. His strikeouts came on a slider and curveball.

The second inning didn't go quite as smoothly for Miley, who retired Rougned Odor on a grounder to first and served up a home run to Jonathan Lucroy, his first as a Ranger. Miley bounced back to strike out Ryan Rua - say the last name without thinking of Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman" - and retire Elvis Andrus on a fly ball to right.

Miley's at 34 pitches, including 22 strikes, in two innings. He hasn't come in like a wrecking ball, but at least he's not walking guys.

The Orioles finally have a left-hander in their rotation. It wasn't a prerequisite, but it's been desired.

Only once in club history has the rotation been exclusively right-handed. You have to go back to 2002. Just be warned that it's not for the squimish.

Rodrigo Lopez, Sidney Ponson and Scott Erickson each made 28 starts that season. Jason Johnson made 22, Travis Driskill 19 and John Stephens 11.

Calvin Maduro, now a scout in the organization, made 10 starts. Sean Douglass made eight, Pat Hentgen four, Josh Towers three and Rick Bauer one.

How did this team lose 95 games?

Lopez went 15-9 with a 3.57 ERA and one complete game. Erickson was 5-12 with a 5.55 ERA and Johnson was 5-14 with a 4.59 ERA.

My lasting memory of Lopez was how he told me in Boston that he didn't talk the day before a start. The unwritten rule is the day of a start, but Lopez must have needed more time to focus.

Manager Buck Showalter, sensing that the media didn't have much to ask him before the game, playfully chastised it for focusing on future opponents instead of the Rangers. For example, would he prefer 13 pitchers or the extra bench player during the interleague series in San Francisco?

"It's all dictated by the starting pitcher," he replied.

Sort of his own personal spin on my "it all starts with starting pitching."

"There are some nights when you need the position players, some nights you need more pitchers," he continued. "Everything is dictated on how deep your starting pitcher can get.

"Anytime your starting pitcher can get three at-bats in a National League game, you have a pretty good chance to win. It doesn't happen much. I just wish they would play them a little closer together instead of spreading them out."

Update: Miley gave up another run in the third on Delino DeShields, Jr.'s leadoff double and ground balls by Choo and Desmond. He's at 54 pitches in three innings.

Update II: A couple of soft singles hurt Miley in the top of the fifth, when the Rangers scored twice to take a 4-0 lead. So did Odor's shot off Miley's foot with two outs, the ball rolling to Jonathan Schoop. Miley walked off the field gingerly, with head athletic trainer Richie Bancells waiting for him.

Mychal Givens is warming.

Miley has allowed four runs and eight hits in five innings, with no walks, five strikeouts and a home run. He's thrown 91 pitches, 62 for strikes.

Back-to-back home runs by Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez in the bottom of the fifth reduced the lead to 4-2. It's the 12th time that the Orioles have gone back-to-back.

Trumbo has 31 home runs, the most recent before tonight coming on June 23.

Update III: Hyun Soo Kim, who struck out looking in his first two at-bats, led off the sixth inning with his fourth home run of the season to cut the lead to 4-3. Kim's first three major league home runs came on the road.

Givens replaced Miley in the sixth and stranded a runner. He struck out two.

Update IV: The Rangers added a big insurance run off Logan Ondrusek in the eighth on doubles by Beltre and Odor.

Update V: The Orioles' winning streak ended at three games tonight with a 5-3 loss to the Rangers.

The Orioles are 61-46 overall and 39-17 at home.

We'll check whether Miley left the game due to injury or his pitch count.