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BALTIMORE -- For six innings, Cole Hamels dominated the Baltimore Orioles.Unfortunately for the Texas Rangers, his impressive run began after the left-hander got off to an uncharacteristically poor start.Hamels gave up three first-inning runs, and that -- along with a strong outing by Orioles right-hander Kevin Gausman -- was enough to provide Baltimore with a 3-2 victory Wednesday night.Matt Wieters had two RBI for the Orioles, whose 39-16 record at home is the best in the majors. Baltimore will seek to complete a three-game sweep on Thursday in a series between first-place teams.Baltimore took control by using three hits and two walks to jump out to a 3-1 lead.You want to be able to go out there and get ahead, Hamels said. Sometimes you are not able to find it in that first inning and that will definitely cost you. More times than not, you can try to scratch out a win, but its definitely my fault, with not being able to establish a strike zone in those key situations.After the shaky first inning, Hamels (12-3) retired 13 of the next 14 batters without allowing a hit. He ended up giving up three runs, four hits and four walks over seven innings.Not bad, but not good enough.Hamels was 7-1 in his previous 11 starts and 3-0 with a 0.84 ERA since the All-Star break.Carlos Beltran homered in his second game with Texas since being obtained in a trade with the Yankees on Monday. New catcher Jonathan Lucroy also picked up his first RBI with the Rangers, and closer Jeremy Jeffress -- obtained in the trade with Milwaukee that landed Lucroy -- spent the night in the Texas bullpen after arriving earlier in the day.After Beltran hit his 23rd homer in the first inning, Baltimore took the lead for good in the bottom half. Mark Trumbo hit an RBI groundout and Wieters added a two-run single for a 3-1 lead.Lucroy delivered an RBI single in the second to get Texas within a run, but neither team scored again.Gausman (3-8) gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings, striking out seven and walking one. The right-hander had won only two of his 18 starts this season and was coming off a horrid outing in which he allowed three homers and six runs over three innings at Toronto.And still, he was good enough to outpitch Hamels.You can give in to what conventionality says it should be like, or you can compete and look at it as an opportunity to present yourself real well, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.Showalter summed up the victory succinctly: It wasnt like we beat (Hamels) up or anything. We had one shot at it and we took advantage of it. And our pitching made it hold up.Darren ODay worked a perfect eighth and Zach Britton finished for his 33rd save in 33 tries.Gausman -- like the Orioles -- seems to perform better at home. Hes 0-7 on the road but has won his last three starts at Camden Yards.I just feel comfortable pitching here, Gausman said.TRAINERS ROOMRangers: OF Shin-Soo Choo (lower back inflammation) hopes to be activated from the DL on Thursday. Everything feels like normal, he said. I feel like I can help this team.Orioles: Rookie OF Joey Rickard (thumb) wont be available before September. I think well get him back sometime this year, Showalter said. Its just a matter of how quickly.UP NEXTRangers: A.J. Griffin (4-1, 3.99 ERA) faces the Orioles for the first time since 2013 in the series finale Thursday night. Texas is 9-4 in his 13 starts.Orioles: Wade Miley (7-8, 4.98) makes his debut with the Orioles. Obtained on Sunday in a trade with Seattle, the 29-year-old is the lone lefty in the Baltimore rotation. Nike Shox Uomo . U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield in Manhattan agreed that lawyers on both sides could make their formal requests by Nov. 8. A hearing is scheduled for a day earlier. Jordan Siev, a lawyer for Rodriguez, wrote in a joint letter to the judge from lawyers on both sides that MLB lawyers planned to ask that the lawsuit be dismissed. Nike Air More Uptempo Rosse . - NASCAR announced a 33-race schedule for the 2014 Nationwide Series with virtually no changes from this years slate. http://www.scarpenikescontate.it/nike-air-huarache-sconti.html . The Olympic champion curler and TSN curling analyst immediately went online to look at the Halls long list of honoured members. Thats when the enormity of the honour sunk in. Nike Air Presto Off White Italia . Tuesdays surgery at Atlantas Piedmont Hospital was performed by Dr. Xavier Duralde and Hawks team physician Dr. Michael Bernot. Nike Shox Uomo .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. Speaking for the first time since being found guilty of ball-tampering on Tuesday evening, South Africas stand-in captain Faf du Plessis used the first half of his pre-match press conference to continue to claim innocence. Du Plessis began with an explanation of what he considered the difference between altering the condition of the ball and merely looking after it, and that he firmly believed he was only doing the latter.Yesterday was the hearing and the verdict was that I was guilty. I completely disagree with that. I felt like I have done nothing wrong, du Plessis said. Theres two ways of looking at it, either ball-shining or ball-tampering. For me, if you talk about ball-tampering, that is something thats wrong. Its picking the ball, scratching the ball.Shining is something that all cricketers would say is not in that same space. It is something all cricketers do and I think there will be a lot of emphasis after this incident on where the game is going, what the ICC is going to do about it. I dont believe shining is wrong. Its not like I was trying to cheat or anything. I was shining a ball and I see no problem with that.Du Plessis admitted he had a massive mint in his mouth and was not trying to be insidious about what he was doing in using saliva that had mixed with the sweet to shine the ball, but he questioned why he would have escaped charge had his actions not been seen by television cameras. I wasnt trying to actually hide it, he said. I put a massive mint in my mouth and my mouth was that wide open. Whether you shine the ball with a sweet in your mouth or whether you dont see the sweet, and the sweet is still there, its exactly the same thing.And according to du Plessis, he has received enough support from both current and former players, including Australian captain Steven Smith, who in his own press conference said his team along with every other, shine the ball the same way, to know that it is commonplace in the game.The ex-players have spoken about it. Its part of our game. Its been an unwritten rule, du Plessis said. Some people use sunblock to shine the ball. I know of people who carry lip-ice in their pocket and shine the cricket ball or gum. So many things. Its just so difficult to say what is right and what is wrong. To say that when you have a sweet in your mouth, its wrong but when you have a sweet in your mouth and the camera doesnt pick up on it, its okay. Its just a really massive grey area.The everybody-does-it defense made headlines in the lead-up to du Plessis hearing, when footage emerged of Virat Kohli shining a ball when he appeared to have gum in his mouth, and David Warner shining a ball after applying lip-balm to his mouth. Neither Kohli nor Warner were charged - the visuals of their actions emerged after the ICCs five-day window for reporting incidents - and although du Plessis would not be drawn on whether they should have been, he asked for consistent application of the rules. I just ask that everyone gets treated the same way, he said. The ICC has taken a stance against me to use me as a scapegoat. All you can ask for is that everyone gets treated the same.He also, along with Cricket South Africa CEO Haroon Lorgat, who was present at the press conference, hoped there would be clarity on what constitutes an artificial substance, and believes his case could lead to thorough research into whether sugar can make the ball swing.Ninety percent of the time, cricketers have got sugary saliva, du Plessis said. Whether we are drinking Powerade, Coke, Gatorade, eating sweets, ssucking on jellies, our mouths are always full of sugar.dddddddddddd Its such a grey area in the laws of cricket and its something that will be looked at. Us as cricketers, we think that it makes a difference but we are not scientists. We are not sure if it makes a difference. Its opened up a can of worms, whats going to happen now, going forward with the game. Something like this needed to happen to create a little bit more awareness on it.Lorgat confirmed that CSA will engage the ICC on the matter at the next cricket committee meeting but until then, du Plessis has asked not be branded underhanded and for the practice to be considered acceptable. Its never nice to be in a position like this because with ball tampering, its a really negative connotation that gets put to it and the term cheat has been thrown around and thats something I do not take lightly, he said.Its something I dont want to be associated with in any space and as I said, I felt I did nothing wrong. I was shining the cricket ball. Ive been doing that for my whole career and every single team I have played in does exactly the same thing and its not something thats frowned upon my anyone, not even the umpires. So to make such a big thing, I just think it was a little bit blown out of proportion by everyone.He has also thanked his team-mates for their united showing of support when Hashim Amla addressed the media at the MCG last Friday, with the entire squad alongside him. If you know the character of someone like Hashim Amla, you will understand that for him to go out and stand in front of the press and say the things that he said, he will feel very strongly about it. He is just the most honest guy on the planet so for him to say that means a lot, du Plessis said. Its speaks a lot about our culture and how we dont let any outside noise creep into our space.The noise may not have got in, but du Plessis has been warned to expect a hostile reception at the Adelaide Oval, perhaps from the opposition but definitely from the crowd. While he does not think Smith and co will have anything because he believes they do the same thing.I think the Aussies wont talk about it at all because they know thats part of their team as well. Its not been driven by the cricketers. You dont expect to go out there against Australia and walk out with a clap and welcome to the crease. Its part of playing against Australia, you expect that and thats something I have grown used to, he said, but challenged fans to understand his perspective. Im hoping that cricketing sense will be prevail. Its obviously something that if you are a cricketer and you understand cricket that this is not actually that big of a deal.With the ball in the spotlight, du Plessis tactics on shining the pink ball will come into focus but he has indicated it may not need as much work. The timing is perfect that its the pink ball. Apparently it swings more. It will be interesting to see how to shine the ball. I will probably just touch my finger like that and get a little bit of spit on it, he joked.And will he still use mints as the sugary substance of choice? Possibly just for bad breath now, not for shining the ball. I still the feel exactly the same way. Whether I was guilty or not, whether the sentence was different or not, I still feel exactly the same way. Maybe that needs to change now but possibly for this one game, I just maybe need to stay away from the mints. ' ' '