The Orioles treated Texas Rangers ace Cole Hamels rudely in the first inning Wednesday night, and that was all it would take to score a 3-2 victory to move to the brink of a three-game sweep of the American League West leaders at Camden Yards.
Hamels, who came into the game with an impressive 12-2 record and 2.84 ERA, was facing an offense that has not been producing up to potential since the All-Star break. But the Orioles (61-45) broke through against a premier starter for the second night in a row after beating right-hander Yu Darvish on Tuesday.
They scored three times in the first inning and took a lead they would not relinquish on a two-out, two-run single by Matt Wieters.
Perhaps more importantly, Orioles right-hander Kevin Gausman shook off a couple of rough early innings to bounce back from his disappointing performance against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre last weekend.
Gausman (3-8) gave up three homers in the first inning against the Jays and would surrender another one in the first inning Wednesday night. He also gave up a run in the second inning before settling down to work through the seventh and earn his third victory of the season.
He seemed more impressed, however, with the way his team rallied around him and beat the winningest team in the AL for the second straight night.
"That's big," Gausman said. "They're a very good baseball team and they've just kind of had our number this year. For us to come out here and get the first two is huge and we'll look for a sweep tomorrow. But anytime you can win a series against a team like that that's playing really good baseball, that obviously has a great pitching staff and an explosive lineup, to win two games in a row like that is huge."
Hamels also pulled it together quickly and was overpowering from the second inning until he was replaced by reliever Matt Bush in the eighth. Hamels gave up just one more hit after the first inning, but took only his third loss since Aug. 7, 2015.
The Orioles finished with just four hits.
Darren O'Day took over for Gausman in the eighth and pitched a perfect inning after pitching the final 1 1/3 innings to get the save in Tuesday night's game. Zach Britton came on to pitch the ninth and allowed a one-out walk to Rougned Odor. But Wieters pounced on a pitch that bounced away from the plate and made a perfect throw to second base to get Odor and take the potential tying run off base.
"It was one of those things where I knew he was an aggressive runner," Wieters said. "I didn't have time to check and see if he was going. I just assumed he was going and just spun and the ball just happened to come out good to second base."
Britton went on to get the final out and record his AL-leading 33rd save in 33 opportunities.
The series concludes Thursday, when newly acquired left-hander Wade Miley takes the mound against Rangers right-hander A.J. Griffin.
Britton makes left-handed history
When Britton got the final out of Wednesday night's one-run victory over the Rangers, he set both a club record for career saves by a left-handed pitcher with 106 and became the first left-hander in major league history to open a season with 33 consecutive saves.
He was previously tied with Tippy Martinez for the Orioles record and he broke the major league record for consecutive saves by a left-hander from the start of a season that was set by Detroit Tigers closer Willie Hernandez in 1984.
Beltran belts one: Carlos Beltran, in his second game since being traded to the Rangers by the New York Yankees, came to the plate against Gausman with two outs in the first inning and launched his 23rd home run of the season into the right-center-field bleachers. It was his first hit in five at-bats in his new uniform. The Rangers also would score a run off Gausman in the second inning on a double by Odor and an RBI single by newly acquired catcher Jonathan Lucroy.
Both starters struggle early: Hamels grappled with his command in the first inning and allowed three runs on three hits and two walks. Jonathan Schoop started the Orioles rally with a one-out single and Manny Machado doubled before the Orioles tied the game on an RBI fielder's choice groundout by Mark Trumbo. Hamels then walked both Chris Davis and Steve Pearce to load the bases and set up a two-run single by Wieters.