Saturday July 2 at the Rangers

Opponent: Texas Rangers
Outcome: W
Score: 7-4
Streak: W2
Record: 24-55
Rank: 7th
GB: 25

Ho hum, another day, another seven runs for the Orioles.  The game was a little more competitive tonight compared to the previous game.  The Orioles exploded for six run in the top of the fourth.  Eddie Murray lead off the inning with a single and two batters later Jim Traber also singled.  A Ken Gerhart single brought Murray in with the first run of the evening and after Larry Sheets grounded out Bill Ripken walked to load the bases.  Pete Stanicek singled to bring home the second run and then Rick Schu launched a grand slam to make it 6-0 Birds.

The Rangers mounted a comeback in the bottom of the fifth.  Larry Parrish and Bob Brower had singles in between a couple outs and both scored with Mike Stanley doubled.  Curtis Wilkerson singled to bring in Stanley and Cecil Espy tripled to score Wilkerson.  Orioles manager Frank Robinson went to the bullpen and replaced starter Oswaldo Peraza with John Habyan who got Scott Fletcher to ground out to end the inning and limit the damage to four runs.

Habyan and three other Orioles relievers (Dave Schmidt Mark Thurmond and Ton Niedenfuer) limited the Rangers to just three hits and two walks the remainder of the game.  Meanwhile the O's scored a final run in the top of the ninth on a Gerhart RBI single.

A bit of foreshadowing - after leaving 10 men on base and going 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position in the previous game, the Rangers only left four on base tonight and went 3 for 6 with RISP.  This trend would continue with disastrous results in the next game.