BALTIMORE _ The Orioles have rediscovered their home run stroke. Now, they just have to get a few runners on base to make their big swings count.
They hit three solo homers Thursday night, but that was not enough to dig the Orioles out of a four-run hole and complete a sweep of their three-game series against the Texas Rangers at Oriole Park.
Newly acquired starter Wade Miley allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings in his Orioles debut and the Rangers survived three middle-inning homers to score a 5-3 victory before 28,762 on a warm August night with playoff implications.
The Rangers (63-46) and Orioles (61-46) came into the game with three victories each in the seven-game season series, so both teams were playing for the head-to-head playoff tiebreaker in the event that they finish with the same record.
Miley (7-9), who was acquired Sunday before the non-waiver trade deadline, allowed a home run to Jonathan Lucroy in the second inning and another single run in the third when Delino DeShields led off with a double and came around to score on a pair of groundouts. The Rangers added two more runs in the fifth on softly hit RBI singles by Ian Desmond and Carlos Beltran.
The Orioles didn't touch Rangers starter A.J. Griffin until the bottom of the fifth, when Mark Trumbo hit a long home run. Pedro Alvarez followed immediately with his 16th home run. Hyun Soo Kim also homered in the game, but the Rangers added an insurance run in the eighth and held on to reclaim the best record in the American League.
