Rangers relish romp to remember

By Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - The Texas Rangers could have played all night. The Baltimore Orioles couldn't wait for it to end.

After 4 hours, 15 minutes of hot Rangers hitting and horrid Orioles pitching, two exhausted teams collapsed in front of their lockers early Saturday morning following a 26-7 Texas rout that included a 16-run eighth.

"Nobody wants to be on the end of that," said Texas manager Johnny Oates, thankful that his team had delivered the punishment instead of receiving it. "I thought our ball club handled it as professionally as it could."

The Rangers' also plowed through a slew of team records, setting new club marks for most runs (26), most runs in an inning (16), most RBIs (26), most hits (19), most extra-base hits (11) and most home runs (5).

Add to that, most pulverized opponent. It was the most lopsided victory in Rangers' history.
"I've seen it all," said Orioles manager Davey Johnson.

The Rangers pushed across 16 runs in the eighth inning - one short of the major league record - against three Orioles pitchers. The last of them was reserve infielder Manny Alexander, off whom light-hitting Rangers shortstop Kevin Elster had his first career grand slam.

"He's on the mound throwing fastballs so we're going to hit them," said Rangers slugger Juan Gonzalez, who had six RBIs for the second time in his career.

"It was the strangest game of my life," Elster said of the contest that began Friday night as a high-scoring affair and was tied at 6-6 after a five-run Baltimore fourth.

The Rangers, off to their fastest home start and second-best overall start in club history, rode the offense of Gonzalez, Dean Palmer, Will Clark and Elster to the most lopsided victory in franchise history.

Leading 10-7 to start the home eighth, the Rangers sent 19 batters to the plate. They got eight walks, eight hits, Elster's grand slam and a two-run homer from Palmer.

Orioles pitcher Jessie Orosco threw 47 pitches in the inning, surrendering eight runs as his earned-run average bloated to 27.00.

Alexander, the first non-pitcher to take the mound for the O's since Jeff Tackett in 1993, issued three walks with the bases loaded. He gave up five runs in 2-3 of an inning and has an ERA of 67.50.
"I've been managing 10 years and I've never had to bring in a player before," Johnson said. "I can't get in a situation like this again."

The modern major league record for runs in an inning is 17 by the Boston Red Sox against the Detroit Tigers on June 18, 1953.

The last team to score 26 runs in a game was the Chicago Cubs in a 26-7 win at Colorado on Aug. 18, 1995. The Chicago White Sox set the modern major league record in a 29-6 victory over the Kansas City A's on April 23, 1955.

Gonzalez had a three-run homer in a five-run first, added a two-run double and a bases-loaded walk. Palmer had another two-run homer in the fifth after Clark had snapped a 6-6 tie with a solo homer off loser Kent Mercker (1-1).

A crowd of 41,184, the largest at The Ballpark in Arlington this season, also watched Darryl Hamilton go 4-for-6 and scored four runs for the Rangers.

The game was the longest nine-inning affair in Rangers history, but fell one minute short of the American League record set in 1986 between Baltimore and the New York Yankees.

"You're getting a lot of guys on base because of all the walks and we were also getting good hacks," Clark said.

The Rangers kept swinging the bats in the eighth, and Oates said he did not want his players to offer at bad pitches in an effort to end the long inning.

"I want to play the game the way it's supposed to be played," said Oates, a former Orioles manager.

"We're never going to try to make outs. We're not going to swing at the first pitch just to get it over."

The Rangers improved to 9-1 at home this season and 11-4 overall - franchise's second-best start ever. Only a 12-3 beginning in 1989 has been better. Baltimore opened a seven-game road trip with the best record in the majors, but slipped to 11-4.

Dennis Cook (1-0) gave the Rangers three innings of two-hit relief. Ed Vosberg pitched the final 1 1-3 innings for his fourth save.