Palmeiro Haunts Old Teammates

The Texas Rangers were tired of watching Rafael Palmeiro beat them at The Ballpark in Arlington. Now Palmeiro is on their side.

Palmeiro hit a tiebreaking, two-run double in the seventh inning as the Rangers handed the Baltimore Orioles their fifth consecutive loss, 7-6, on Friday night.

The Rangers signed Palmeiro as a free agent before the season after he hit .342 with nine homers and 22 runs batted in in 79 at-bats for the Orioles during his career at The Ballpark.

“It’s strange, it doesn’t seem normal,” said Palmeiro of facing his former Baltimore teammates for the first time in a series at Arlington. “I went through a lot of good times and bad times with those guys. But I don’t have any extra incentive. I’m trying to win whether it’s Baltimore, Oakland, whoever.”

With the score tied, 4-4, in the seventh, Tom Goodwin drew a leadoff walk from reliever Arthur Rhodes (1-2). Goodwin advanced to second on Mark McLemore’s sacrifice bunt and Ivan Rodriguez worked a two-out walk to set the stage for Palmeiro, who drove in 121 runs for the Orioles last season.

Palmeiro pulled a double inside the first-base line to score Goodwin and Rodriguez and give Texas a 6-4 lead.

“It’s hard facing a guy like Arthur, a guy I’m close to,” Palmeiro said. “It’s not the easiest thing. But I know he had a good slider and I was just trying to see the ball and react.”

Palmeiro was two for four with two RBIs, and went two for two with an RBI and four runs scored in Thursday night’s opener of the four-game series.

Goodwin’s run-scoring single in the eighth made the score 7-4, but the Orioles closed to 7-6 on Cal Ripken’s first homer of the season, a two-run shot off John Wetteland with two out in the ninth.

Delino DeShields then reached on an infield single, but Wetteland retired Tommy Davis on a groundout to earn his 11th save. It was the Rangers’ fifth victory in their last six games.

Meanwhile, Baltimore continues to struggle, falling to 2-6 on the current road trip.

AROUND THE LEAGUE / Clemens Out Another Week

Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens will miss at least another week of action because of a strained left hamstring, interim manager Don Zimmer said.

Clemens, who has been on the disabled list since April 28, was eligible to be activated Thursday.

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The Toronto Blue Jays activated second baseman Homer Bush and infielder Craig Grebeck from the disabled list. The Blue Jays sent infielder Norberto Martin and catcher Kevin Brown to triple-A Syracuse.