BALTIMORE — After three days of Baltimore retribution, the Texas Rangers that battered the Orioles in last year’s American League Divisional Series reappeared Sunday evening at Camden Yards.

With a national audience watching on ESPN, the defending World Series champions emerged from their first-half doldrums to tear into struggling Orioles starter Cole Irvin and relievers Nick Vespi and Matt Krook. The Rangers took the series finale, 11-2, in front of an announced crowd of 23,439 to end Baltimore’s four-game winning streak.

On this night, they swung the mighty bats, piling up seven extra-base hits including a pair of home runs from journeyman outfielder Derek Hill, whose three long balls over the weekend nearly matched his previous career total of four. The Orioles’ league-best offense could not keep pace against Rangers starter Andrew Heaney, who struck out 10 and allowed but five hits over seven innings.

“I thought he struggled with his command,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Irvin, who has dropped three straight decisions. “When he got it in the zone, they took good swings on him.”

The Orioles failed to homer for just the second time in their past 29 games, and shortstop Gunnar Henderson’s on-base streak ended at 36 games as he struck out four times.

The loss dropped the Orioles (53-31) back into a tie atop the AL East with the New York Yankees, who defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-1, earlier in the day. They’ll head west now for three games against the Seattle Mariners and three against the Oakland Athletics.

They took solace from their 17-12 record in June, a brutal month in which they faced a succession of top opponents and had just one day off.

“I was disappointed in this one,” Hyde said. “But I thought we played outstanding.”

After a rough ride against the Houston Astros and Cleveland Guardians, the Orioles’ rotation got back on track as the club took three straight to open its weekend series against Texas. Irvin, 0-2 with a 7.53 ERA in his previous three starts, hoped to finish the sweep and reclaim the form that made him so essential to the Orioles’ hot start.

It was not to be.

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