Showalter ignoring the standings again (O's lead 9-5)

With the Red Sox losing this afternoon, the Orioles already gained a half-game in the division race to leave them 7 1/2 back as they get ready to finish their series against the Rangers. They're also 3 1/2 behind in the wild card chase, but manager Buck Showalter isn't interested.

Showalter makes it appear that he's not even a casual observer.

"I haven't (looked) in about three or four weeks," he said.

Told that his club was four games below .500, Showalter replied, "I didn't know that, so thanks. You burst my bubble. Now I'm depressed again."

Showalter doesn't need a hug or any wild card updates.

"We're trying to win our division and be the last team standing," he said. "It's as simple as that. Trying to win more games than anybody in our division and win as many games as we can and try to play more home games than away games.

"This is July. The math part of it doesn't really figure into my thinking anyway right now. I've said many times, September is an eternity. Late July and August really test your mettle. So we'll see.

"Our curiosity will be rewarded. Unless we get rained out for two months."

The forecast calls only for suffocating heat. Nothing about precipitation.

The Orioles' response to the trade talk and the sellers label has been to rattle off three victories in a row while outscoring the Rangers 25-4. It's almost like they're venting, or trying to convince management that they're still relevant in 2017 and don't want to concede anything.

"You'd like for it to be that simple, but they were tired of it after the first day. They were tired of it after the second day and the third day," Showalter said, basically shooting down the theory.

"I'd like to say, yeah, that's it, but it's a lot deeper than that."

It's probably more about the starters getting deeper into games. The last three have worked through the sixth inning and allowed only one run.

The Orioles haven't strung together four quality starts since April 19-22.

Left-hander Wade Miley takes the baton tonight and he hasn't completed the sixth inning since June 1 against the Red Sox, a span of eight starts. He hasn't finished three innings in three of those outings.

Miley has allowed seven runs in two of his last three starts, going 1 1/3 in Milwaukee and 4 2/3 against the Cubs.

Miley leads the majors in pitches thrown per inning with 19.6 and is third in pitches thrown per batter with 4.18, trailing Trevor Bauer (4.31) and Drew Pomeranz (4.23). His 55 walks lead the American League.

Opponents are hitting .329 against Miley the first time through the order, .326 the second time and .216 the third. They're batting .378 (14-for-37) on the first pitch thrown by Miley, but .217 (10-for-55) with two outs and runners in scoring position.

The Rangers have two left-handed hitters in tonight's lineup - right fielder Shin-Soo Choo and second baseman Rougned Odor. Lefties are hitting .193 with one home run and six RBIs against Miley this season and right-handers are hitting .317 with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs.

Update: The Orioles trail 1-0 in the first inning after Shin-Soo Choo walked with one out, stole second base, took third on Welington Castillo's throwing error and scored on Adrian Beltre's two-out single.

Update II: Carlos Gomez's RBI double in the top of the fourth inning gave Texas a 2-0 lead, but Jonathan Schoop hit a solo home run in the bottom half, his 19th of the season.

Left-hander Cole Hamels' scoreless-innings streak ended at 24.

Update III: Mike Napoli hit a three-run homer with two outs in the fifth to give the Rangers a 5-1 lead.

Update IV: Adam Jones followed Joey Rickard's leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth with another opposite-field home run to reduce the lead to 5-3. And Mark Trumbo homered with two outs to make it 5-4.

Miley allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings, with four walks, three strikeouts and a home run. He threw 91 pitches, 49 for strikes

Update V: The Orioles scored twice in the sixth inning to lead 6-5. Rickard tied the game with a RBI single and Jones followed with a run-scoring double to right field, the ball squirting past the bag.

Update VI. The Orioles added two more runs in the sixth on Schoop's single into center field. Orioles 8, Rangers 5.

Update VII: Chris Davis homered to left field leading off the seventh inning to give the Orioles a 9-5 lead.