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Orioles try to halt high-scoring Rangers

Aug 8, 2008 - 10:08 AM Texas (60-56) at Baltimore (54-59) 7:05 pm EDT

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- For the Baltimore Orioles, there has been nothing pleasant about hosting the Texas Rangers lately.

Jeremy Guthrie hopes to end the Orioles' recent woes against the Rangers on Friday.

Many players from both teams remain from August 22, 2007, when Texas belted six homers en route to a 30-3 bombardement of Baltimore.

While the next four meetings have been closer, the Orioles haven't experienced all that much success at home, losing three times while allowing nine or more runs in three of the four contests.

The Rangers will definitely be without David Murphy, who is on the disabled list with a strained right knee ligament . They also likely will be missing Milton Bradley, who has been hobbled by a strained left quad that has restricted him to a pinch-hitting appearance over the last eight games. Still, their league-best offense figures to be fired up after being blanked for only the second time, falling 3-0 to ex-Oriole Mike Mussina and the New York Yankees on Thursday.

The vaunted Rangers offense will need to solve Guthrie (8-8, 3.35 ERA), who will be eyeing his third win in as many starts after yielding a total of two runs and seven hits over his last 15 1/3 innings. The righthander logged his first complete game in Saturday's 3-1 triumph over Seattle after allowing four hits and a walk.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Luis Mendoza (3-4, 7.00), who has surrendered four or more runs in four of his last six turns since joining the rotation in July. The righthander wasn't overly effective in Sunday's 8-4 win over Toronto but still received the decision despite permitting four runs and six hits over seven frames.