Land Of The Lost: Texas Rangers Waste Opportunity To Return To .500 In 8-5 Loss To Baltimore

• D-tails – Boxscore: Orioles 8, Rangers 5; Standings; The Depot live game blog; Post-Game Show comment thread

BALTIMORE - The Rangers were enjoying a perfectly lovely Sunday afternoon down by the Inner Harbor. They had already piled up three homers. They had chased Baltimore starter Brad Bergeson from the game. They had a big lead, two men on base, and nobody was out in the fifth inning.

They were on their way to a third consecutive win, to clinching a winning road trip and to evening their season record.

Yep, too good to be true.

Just when it seemed like the season was headed back in the right direction, it all collapsed in an ugly 8-5 loss to Baltimore. The lineup suddenly stopped hitting. After dancing with danger for the first four innings, RHP Brandon McCarthy finally let trouble lead. And RHP Jason Jennings, one of the few reliable pieces in the bullpen, couldn’t hold a shrinking lead.

In short, the Rangers did exactly what they can’t afford to do. They wasted a big lead. It’s the second time this season they’ve lost after leading by at least four runs.

“They gave me a four-run lead and I let them back into it,” McCarthy said. “We were at a tipping point and I had a chance to push us in the right direction. I had to shut them down. I didn’t help the club at all. And that’s just unacceptable.”

McCarthy struggled with command from the start because he had virtually no breaking pitch to accompany his fairly average fastball. But he was helped by two outfield assists from David Murphy and held a 2-1 lead on Chris Davis’ second-inning homer.

Murphy led off the fifth with a homer – his first hit of the season after 23 hitless at-bats- and Hank Blalock added a two-run homer to make it 5-1 before there was an out in the inning. Marlon Byrd and Nelson Cruz also singled to force Bergeson’s exit.

But even with an error from Ty Wigginton, the Rangers couldn’t get another run home. And in the bottom of the inning, McCarthy could no longer hold the Orioles back as he started to face the lineup for a third time.

Brian Roberts led off with a homer on a flat fastball. That, of itself, wasn’t a terrible issue, but a pair of one out singles, a throwing error by Cruz and a double by Luke Scott made it 5-4.

“So, the guy hits a solo homer, so what,” McCarthy said. “I’ve got to move on after that, but I didn’t. I needed to do a better job. We needed a shut down inning. These are the game that just can’t happen and the starting pitching is the key to that.”

But there were other issues that led to the loss.

• From the lineup: There was the failure to add to the run total in any manner other than the homer. And after the fifth, the Rangers didn’t put another runner on base until pinch hitter Andruw Jones doubled to start the ninth.

• From the defense: Cruz’s throw to third in the fifth was completely unnecessary. Runners had all but stopped at first and second when he overthrew the cutoff man and 3B Michael Young. The ball landed in the stands, allowing one run to score and another to move to third.

• From the bullpen: Jennings couldn’t get the Orioles to chase his slider as it dove out of the zone. It was also more erratic than it has been at any point in the first three weeks of the season and that ultimately led to Baltimore taking the lead. He hit No. 9 hitter Cesar Izturis with one slider, then allowed a single to Brian Roberts on a fastball after he fouled off a couple of sliders. Finally, he left a slider up to Adam Jones, who turned it into a three run homer.

It ruined a perfectly good afternoon. The question the Rangers must now answer is whether it will send the team into another tailspin.

“We’ll find out [Monday],” Jennings said. “If we let one game that slipped away affect us, we’re not as tough as we think we are. We still have a chance to finish this trip with a winning record [the Rangers are 3-3] and some momentum.”