Orioles Swept By Rangers In Texas
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- The Baltimore Orioles finished up a terrible series in Texas with another disappointing loss. Now, they travel to Boston for a four-game set.
Talk about a challenging road trip.
Jeremy Guthrie got off to a rough start and never recovered as Baltimore lost 13-5 to the Rangers on Wednesday night.
Derrek Lee and Vladimir Guerrero homered for the Orioles, who have lost eight of their last nine games. They dropped to 1-5 on the 10-game trip to Atlanta, Texas and Boston that takes them up to the All-Star break.
Texas finished with 19 hits and outscored Baltimore 30-11 in the series.
"I would have loved to pitch better," Guthrie said. "I didn't have a good outing. Start to finish, I really struggled and had to work harder than I needed to. We've got to lick our wounds, forget about this series and have a better one in Boston."
Guthrie (3-11) gave up six runs and eight hits in five innings while taking over the AL lead in losses. Four of the runs came in the first inning.
Guthrie got into trouble early when the first three Texas hitters reached, two via walks. Adrian Beltre's sacrifice fly got the scoring underway. Michael Young's RBI double and Nelson Cruz's two-run single made it 4-0.
Baltimore pushed across two runs in the second when Matt Wieters doubled and scored on Lee's seventh homer, a 420-foot drive onto the grass hill behind the center-field fence.
But in the fifth, Beltre's RBI double and Young's run-scoring single extended the lead to 6-2.
"(The Rangers) are playing at a high level, but it's more about us, not them," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "It's about us not executing some things that we're not happy about. We're gonna have to do better.
"It's about all phases of the game, not just pitching. We've got to do better. It's something I and we are aware of. We got what we deserve. We didn't do a lot of things well this series."
Guthrie has suffered from a lack of run support this season, but he had a rough performance against Texas.
"I struggled for a feel in the first inning. Those two walks were a tough way to start off," Guthrie said. "We haven't done what it takes to win. Baseball's pretty complicated. You have to do a lot of things well to win. Unfortunately, we're short in a lot of areas. In this stretch, we're not playing very well."
Guerrero, who hadn't had an extra base hit in 34 at-bats since June 16, helped the Rangers reach the World Series last season, and he received an ovation from the crowd as he circled the bases on his solo homer in the seventh.
The Orioles had few answers for Alexi Ogando (9-3), who snapped a tie with Colby Lewis and C.J. Wilson for the Rangers lead in wins and positioned himself for a possible All-Star invitation. The right-hander allowed three runs and four hits in seven innings.
Ogando wasn't chosen by his manager, AL skipper Ron Washington, for the original All-Star staff, but he has a chance to be a late selection because so many of the AL pitchers take the mound on Sunday.
Mike Napoli hit a three-run homer to help the Rangers break it open with a four-run seventh. Young and Cruz also had three RBIs apiece for Texas, which moved back into sole possession of first place with the help of Detroit's 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels earlier Wednesday.
Elvis Andrus had four hits and Young scored twice, giving him 958 runs for his career, tying Rafael Palmeiro for the team record.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
