The Orioles lost their first series of the young season as the Texas Rangers defeated them on Sunday, 3-0.
I’m sure most fans were hoping that Baltimore would take two-out-of-three from the AL Champions heading into Yankee Stadium, but that would not be.
With the Yankees next on the docket for the Orioles on the road, it would have been nice to have won the series against the Rangers and have carried that momentum into the Big Apple.
After Zach Britton’s amazing game on Saturday, the Orioles have only scored one run in the past 18 innings.
Not good.
Jeremy “Guts” Guthrie put on a gutsy performance after being in hospital for pneumonia as he went six innings, but gave up a run courtesy of an Adrian Beltre Homer in the fourth. Overall, he was great and only if the Orioles could have generated some offense…
Baltimore did muster six hits and got four walks; however, it seemed that they could not make the most of their opportunities on the base paths.
Considering how well the Texas pitching was throwing on the day, they should have done a lot more with the chances they had.
The Orioles blew a big chance to score in the fifth inning. Nick Markakis reached base with a single and then advanced to third off a Derrek Lee single; however, he should have scored. As the Rangers were attempting to throw home, Markakis got crossed up between third base and home plate – all due to him stopping about 1/3 of the way through.
The Rangers did throw to home plate, but the ball got away from the catcher. Markakis could have scored, but didn’t take the chance.
Of course, the home crowd was incredulous as to how he didn’t try to score. The frame ended as Vladmir Guerrero flew out to right on the first pitch.
With Baltimore trailing 1-0 in the seventh, reliever Jim Johnson came and served up a two-run homer to give Texas a 3-0 lead.
Derek Holland moved to 2-0 as he threw six shutout innings for the Rangers. Neftali Feliz threw 1 1/3 innings for the save and prevented the Orioles from rallying in the eighth with two runners on.
