have talked different length of contract,"; explain

BALTIMORE - Some people like to mark their birthday with a cake and candles. Nelson Cruz has a different approach. Cruz hit his 26th home run on his 34th birthday, and the Baltimore Orioles breezed past the skidding Texas Rangers 8-3 Tuesday night. "A homer and a victory. That was a nice day," Cruz said. "I like to celebrate with homers." In five career games on his birthday, Cruz is 7 for 19 with two long balls. On this night, his third home run in seven games left him only seven short of his career high of 33, set in 2009 with Texas. Cruz needs one more homer to match his total from last year with the Rangers, a season cut short by a 50-game suspension as part of the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal. None of that really matters to Cruz. After signing a one-year, $8 million contract with Baltimore during the off-season, he is focused on helping the Orioles earn a post-season berth for the second time in three years. "Its been a blessing. Im happy with the situation that we are as a team," he said. "Thats more important to me. The numbers, at the end of the season were going to look at it. But right now we focus on winning games, and thats what were doing." Steve Pearce and Caleb Joseph also went deep for the Orioles, who are assured of at least a split of the four-game series after winning the first two. Pearce and Cruz delivered solo shots in the first inning and Joseph connected with a man on in the second. It was the third homer in two nights for Pearce. T.J. McFarland (1-1) allowed two runs in a career-high five innings to win his second career start compared to 51 relief appearances. "He pitched as well as we thought he could," manager Buck Showalter said. "He makes our bullpen better, but its nice to know that you have that type of option down there with a guy if you can get the proper rest." Rangers rookie Nick Martinez (1-6) gave up eight runs, six earned, and seven hits in five innings. The right-hander is 0-5 with an 8.10 ERA in seven starts since earning his lone career win at Detroit on May 24. "I feel like I pitched better than what it showed," Martinez said. The Rangers (37-46) have lost 11 of 13 overall to fall nine games under .500 for the first time since they were 9-18 on April 29, 2008. Texas has dropped seven straight on the road, its longest such skid in six seasons. Shortstop Elvis Andrus, who made a key error, said: "As a player I always get mad when Im not enjoying the game, and thats exactly whats happening right now." For the second game in a row, Baltimore homered twice in the first inning. Pearce hit a liner in front of the left-field foul pole that glanced off the glove of Shin-Soo Choo and dropped over the wall. One out later, Cruz smacked a 1-1 pitch over the centre-field wall. Texas pulled even in the second when Adam Rosales hit a two-run double in his first at-bat of the season. In the bottom half, Joseph drove a 3-1 pitch into the front row of the left-field seats for a 4-2 lead. The three homers allowed by Martinez were a career high. The Orioles used three hits, a walk and an error to pull away with a four-run fourth. With the bases loaded, Andrus fumbled Josephs potential double-play grounder to allow a run to score. Nick Markakis followed with an RBI double and Pearce added a sacrifice fly. "It was an easy ground ball," Andrus said. "No excuse about it." Chris Gimenez hit a run-scoring grounder off Ryan Webb in the Texas sixth. But the Rangers went quietly after that in their ninth loss in 10 games against Baltimore, dating to last year. NOTES: Texas designated LHP Joe Saunders for assignment and recalled RHP Miles Mikolas from Triple-A Round Rock. Mikolas will make his first major league start on Wednesday. Nick Tepesch, who was slated to start Wednesday, was pushed back to Friday against the Mets. ... The Orioles activated OF Nolan Reimould (spine) from the 60-day DL and designated him for assignment. The oft-injured Reimold, 30, has played in 56 games since the start of the 2012 season. ... Texas Roughned Odor had two hits to snap a 4-for-29 skid. Custom Florida Panthers Jerseys . Patty Mills scored 15 points, Tim Duncan had 10 points and 11 rebounds in limited minutes, and San Antonio trailed for only 11 seconds late in the first quarter of a 103-90 victory over Portland on Wednesday night. Vincent Trocheck Jersey . The Mercedes duo of three-time Canadian Grand Prix champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has won all six races to start the season, finishing one-two in the last five. http://www.hockeypanthersofficialonline.com/ .Michael Briscoe is serving a life sentence for sexual assault, kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Nina Courtepatte in 2005. Aleksander Barkov Jersey . - Aaron Rodgers makes tough throws that can leave fans of the Green Bay Packers speechless. Evgenii Dadonov Jersey .com) - DAngelo Harrison posted 21 points to guide No.The Ottawa Senators are still looking for common ground in contract talks with Jared Cowen and the team believes its latest offer - a four-year proposal - is fair for the restricted free agent defenceman. "I think weve really closed the gap on their first number and they have just kind of come off their first number minimal, so again I dont want to shut off negotiations with them and say this is it," assistant general manager Tim Murray said on Friday. "But in my belief, we made such a great try in our last proposal. Were right at the end of our internal cap - and the comparables to what other guys have got the last three and four years coming out of entry level - and our last offer was right at the top of the majority of those guys." The Ottawa Sun reported last month that the Senators tabled an eight-year, $28 million contract offer as both sides looked to get a deal done before the start of training camp. The Sun added that while the deal was not rejected, nothing had been done and both sides had exchanged several proposals. "We have talked different length of contract,"; explained Murray.dddddddddddd"We started with an eight-year deal, they thought they were leaving to much money on the table and thats fair - its hard to gauge for them where he is going to be his first year of UFA for them which is five years. "So then we both started talking four-year deals. I have no problem saying that. I think four years is fair to both sides. He gets to establish himself as what they believe is a top player. Hell have once year of restricted free agency after the four-year deal and he can hit a home run. And in the meantime, he can be making very competitive dollars compared to his peer group. I think were both on the same side on rhe term. We certainly are not on the same wave length with dollars." Cowen, 22, played seven games with the Senators last season after recovering from surgery for a torn labrum in his hip. He suffered the injury while playing with the American Hockey Leagues Binghamton Senators and had surgery in mid-November. Hes played 90 games with the Senators, tallying six goals and 18 points with a minus-3 rating and 68 penalty minutes. ' ' '