O's rally from 4-0 deficit to win, Flaherty homers for go-ahead run

Ryan Flaherty began tonight batting just .203 for the season and with just three homers. But given a chance to do something big for his team tonight, he did just that. Facing left-handed reliever Neal Cotts, Flaherty homered over the right field scoreboard leading off the last of the seventh. His fourth homer broke a 4-4 tie and lifted the Orioles to a 6-4 win over the Texas Rangers. The Orioles came back from down 4-0 to tie the game and Flaherty untied it on a 91 mph 3-1 fastball for his second hit of the night. Flaherty was starting at third base for the second night in a row for the suspended Manny Machado. The O's are now 3-0 since that suspension started Monday. The O's were not done that inning. Steve Pearce walked with two outs, moved to second on a balk and scored on an Adam Jones single to left to make it 6-4. That gave Jones his third RBI of the night. Down 4-0 after three innings, the O's got even with one in the fourth and three runs in the last of the sixth. Jones hit a solo homer off Texas starter Miles Mikolas in the fourth. It was No. 16 for Jones and his 10th over the last 30 games. The O's got some help from Mikolas when he walked two with one out in the sixth. A Jones sac fly scored their second run and a Nelson Cruz RBI single pulled the Orioles within 4-3. J.J. Hardy's ground single to center off the glove of shortstop Elvis Andrus tied the game 4-4. Chris Tillman struggled early in an outing again. He gave up one run in the first and three in the third as the Orioles fell behind 4-0. On the night, Tillman went 5 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and four runs (three earned) with four walks and two strikeouts. He threw 111 pitches, 60 for strikes. This was the eighth time in the past 10 games the Orioles starter did not record a quality start. The starters' ERA is 4.61 in that stretch. Brad Brach got the win in relief with 1 1/3 scoreless innings. He recorded one of the game's biggest outs when he got Carlos Pena to ground out with the bases loaded in the sixth and Texas leading 4-1 at that point. Since his latest recall to the majors, Brach has pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings. With the Orioles batting in the bottom of the eighth, the game was halted by a rain delay that lasted 1 hour, 38 minutes. The Orioles moved to six games over .500, tying their season-high, at 45-39 to stay one game back of first-place Toronto. The O's will try to sweep this four-game series Thursday night when Wei-Yin Chen (7-3, 4.19 ERA) faces Yu Darvish (8-4, 2.42 ERA). The Orioles' last home four-game sweep against Texas was from Aug. 6-9, 2004.