“It is hit high, it is hit deep, and it is GONE! A home run!”
This familiar phrase isn’t just a paraphrase of Yankee radio announcer John Sterling’s famous home run call, but also a familiar soundtrack to when the Texas Rangers have come to bat against Oriole pitching over the years.
Sure, the Orioles did beat a reeling Rangers team in the Wild Card round of the playoffs last season, but sadly that win was something of a rarity in the series.
The Rangers have quietly become a major pest (if not a nemesis) for the Orioles who tend to run into a buzz saw with the Rangers when the two teams play. It seems that, more often than not, they barely get out alive.
Before the All-Star break the O’s, to their credit, did manage a split with the Rangers but this was more of the get-out-alive variety, as the Rangers took the first two games of the set. Consider the low-lights over the years:
In 2007, the Rangers set an American League record, scoring 30 runs against the Orioles in a 30-3 rout. The game featured Texas scoring five runs in the fourth, nine runs in the sixth, 10 runs in the eighth and six runs in the ninth to embarrass the O’s, whose current starters Nick Markakis and Brian Roberts both played on that team.
Rangers manager Ron Washington said of his then-last-place Rangers, “We set a record for something on the good side of baseball” (ESPN.com). Current Rangers Ian Kinsler, David Murphy and Nelson Cruz were on that team as well.
Last year, the talk was about Josh Hamilton and his four home runs in one game at Camden Yards on May 8, 2012. I remember that game well because I thought the weather might be bad and ended up not attending. Those who did were treated to a show though as Hamilton became the 16th player in MLB history to accomplish the feat.
“Obviously it’s, other than being in the World Series, the highlight of my big-league career,” said Hamilton after the game.
Hamilton beat up now-former Orioles starter Jake Arrieta for two and smashed another one off Zach Phillips before capping the night off with a homer against usually-reliable current O’s set-up man Darren O’Day.
The Rangers have gone 10-3 against the O’s over the past two seasons (2011-2012). They have routinely mauled the O’s pitching with a lineup that is consistently among the league leaders in home runs and RBI, and a regular competitor for West Division and World Series Championships (where they have competed twice in the last several years, losing both).
The Rangers seem to especially enjoy the close confines of Camden, which their hitters have made a personal bandbox over the years.
While Rangers pitching hasn’t had the recognition their lineup has had, the Orioles have only to ask Scott Feldman, who won 17 games with the Rangers in 2009 in what has been so far his breakout season.
On the flip side, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Buck Showalter was formerly the Rangers’ manager, and current O’s Chris Davis, Feldman, Tommy Hunter, and O’Day are all former Rangers.
Perhaps some of the team’s success against the O’s will rub off thanks to all of these former Rangers – and perhaps the O’s got the Texas monkey off their back once and for all with last year’s Wild Card win. We’ll see, as the Birds jump into the fire right away to start the second “half’ of the season.
