ARLINGTON, Texas — Jacob deGrom struck out nine over five innings for his first victory in more than a month and the Texas Rangers beat Baltimore 5-1 on Saturday night for their fourth consecutive victory. <\/p>\n
The Rangers (59-58) moved back over .500 with the winning streak since a season-worst six-game losing streak that knocked them out of the AL West lead.<\/p>\n
Texas went ahead to stay with two unearned runs in the second inning, on two infield singles and two throwing errors. Corey Seager hit a three-run homer in the eighth.<\/p>\n
It was the first start for deGrom (8-7) since he told the Rangers before last Monday’s trade deadline that he wanted to stay in Texas<\/a>. At least one contending team inquired about the two-time Cy Young Award winner who has a full no-trade clause in his contract<\/p>\n The right-hander struck out half of the 18 batters he faced and walked one while throwing 88 pitches (55 strikes). He had gone 0-2 while allowing 13 earned runs in 18 innings his previous four starts since a win June 30 at Cleveland. <\/p>\n Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish (7-11) struck out four without a walk over six innings.<\/p>\n Jackson Holliday homered for the Orioles (56-61), with the 403-foot homer snapping his 0-for-18 slide after deGrom struck out the game’s first two batters. Baltimore has lost five of seven games while scoring a combined three runs in the losses. <\/p>\n