The Orioles are treating the start of baseball's second half as a new beginning, a chance to forget about all that ailed them for the first three months and focus on building momentum for an organization that is badly in need of it.
A three-day layoff, however, didn't magically cure the Orioles' myriad problems. It did, however, work wonders for Texas Rangers first baseman Mark Teixeira's home run swing.
Another erratic effort from starting pitcher Daniel Cabrera was followed by a meltdown from the Orioles' bullpen. Teixeira, the Mount St. Joseph alumnus, hit three of Texas' six home runs and knocked in seven runs in the Rangers' 15-1 thumping of the Orioles last night before 22,780 at Camden Yards.
Cabrera (4-7 ), who lost for the fifth time in six starts, persevered after a shaky first inning before imploding in Texas' six-run sixth , when the Rangers broke a 1-1 tie and sent 10 batters to the plate. The inning started with a bases-empty home run by Teixeira and included a two-run double from Brad Wilkerson off reliever Chris Britton and a three-run blast by Mark DeRosa (4-for-4), also off Britton.
Reliever Sendy Rleal surrendered a two-run shot to Wilkerson in the seventh and Bruce Chen served up a two-run shot to Teixeira in the eighth. Catcher Rod Barajas hit the Rangers' fifth home run of the night in the ninth off Chen, who then gave up Teixeira's third of the night. Teixeira, who hit the All-Star break with nine home runs a year after hitting 43 , now has four home runs in his past nine at-bats.
"He's a strong kid." Perlozzo said of Teixeira, a Severna Park native. "We'll hope that he got going for a day and he'll take the next couple of days off. If we pitch him a little better, we'll have more success."
Every Texas starter had at least one hit, and all but three of the Rangers' 19 hits came after the fifth inning. Cabrera allowed four runs on six hits and five walks through 5 1/3 innings. Meanwhile, the Orioles (41-50 ) managed just four hits, including Brandon Fahey's third-inning RBI single, in seven innings against Vicente Padilla.
"We didn't pitch." Perlozzo said. "That wasn't the way we wrote it up. We had ourselves a good ballgame and then the wheels came off."
After the All-Star break, the Orioles were supposed to have a workout yesterday afternoon, but it was canceled by a storm. Perlozzo did preside over a pre-game meeting to set some goals for his team, which ended a frustrating first half with two feel- good wins in Cleveland.
