The Orioles lost the second game of their doubleheader tonight, giving them just one win out of four on their series with the Rangers. Tommy Hunter, pitching on short rest, was better than many thought he'd be but just not good enough.
The Rangers took an early lead when Hunter walked Elvis Andrus in front of Josh Hamilton. Uh oh, you know what that means. Hamilton did what Hamilton does and hit a two-run homer onto Eutaw Street. Hunter settled down after that and surprisingly didn't allow another run until the fifth inning, when the Rangers scored two. After six innings Buck Showalter pulled Hunter, although he looked pretty good considering and had only thrown 91 pitches. Maybe because he was on short rest?
Whatever the reason, Hunter's replacement, Matt Lindstrom, allowed three runs in the sevenths on three singles, an intentional walk (to Hamilton, of course), and an error. That made the loss seem even more inevitable.
As for the O's offense, they lucked into three runs in the third inning when the Texas Rangers turned temporarily into the Bad News Bears. The Rangers made three errors in the innings, throwing the ball all over the place, making bad catches. Other than that one inning where the Rangers forgot themselves, the Orioles couldn't score. I guess they were tuckered out from all the home runs in game one.
With the Rangers out of the Orioles hair until August, the Rays come to town tomorrow for three games. After ten games played in the gauntlet, the Orioles are 6-4. Better than I expected!