AMERICAN LEAGUE
Texas’ Josh Hamilton hit his major league-leading 15th homer of the season as the Rangers won the night game against the Baltimore Orioles 7-3 on Thursday to split their doubleheader.
Hamilton entered the doubleheader coming off a four-homer game on Tuesday and had five home runs in his previous six at-bats.
After going 1-for-4 with a single and two strikeouts in the first game, he resumed his assault on Baltimore pitching by hitting a two-run shot in the first inning off former Rangers pitcher Tommy Hunter (2-2).
Hamilton increased his major league-leading RBI total to 38.
Texas starter Derek Holland (3-2) did not allow an earned run in six innings.
In the opener, the Orioles set an American League record by hitting home runs in their first three at-bats and launched five in all to set up a 6-5 win.
All the homers came off Texas pitcher Colby Lewis (3-2), who struck out a career-high 12.
That earned him the dubious honor of becoming the first pitcher since 1918 to give up five home runs and have at least 10 strikeouts in the same game.
In other games on Thursday, it was:
‧ Yankees 5, Rays 3
‧ Indians 8, Red Sox 3
‧ Tigers 10, Athletics 6
‧ Blue Jays 6, Twins 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg struck out a season-high 13 batters to lead the Nationals to a 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, ending a three-game losing skid.
Roger Bernadina and Adam LaRoche both homered in the sixth off Pittsburgh’s Kevin Correia (1-3) to erase a two-run deficit.
Strasburg improved to 3-0 while trimming his ERA to 1.64 by overpowering the punchless Pirates. He gave up one earned run in six innings.
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