Adrian Beltre. Good at baseball. (Image via Keith Allison.)

5 years to the day after putting up 30 runs on the Orioles, the Rangers put on another offensive show, led by Mr. Beltre.  OK, so they didn’t score 30 runs, but 12 is still a lot, guys.

Adrian Beltre was in the zone tonight.  In the first and second innings, he showed off his defensive prowess, making a couple of nifty plays at 3rd.  He then followed up with a line-drive home run to dead center in the bottom of the 2nd to put the Rangers up 1-0.

The Rangers would quickly lose their lead in the 3rd, but not to worry, they have Beltre (and Moreland and Murphy).

With things all tied up 1-1 in the bottom of the 4th, things got fun.  To start the inning, the Rangers had 5 straight hits, including ANOTHER Beltre home run and a David Murphy double.  Then after a Soto walk, Moreland knocked his first (official) grand slam of his career.  Then a few batters later, Beltre would hit his 2nd home run of the inning, his 3rd of the night.  IN THE 4TH INNING.  10-1 Rangers.

But the offense wasn’t done yet.  2 back-to-back singles in the 5th would set things up nicely for Moreland who hit a sac fly to give the Rangers another run.  A Soto double in the 7th tacked on another.

Derek Holland, who sported the stirrups in tonight’s start, went 7 innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, walking 2 and striking out 5.  All in all, a pretty good outing from the Dutch Oven.

FINAL: Rangers 12, Orioles 3