Mark Trumbo homers twice, bullpen fans 12 in win

ARLINGTON, Texas - On a steamy Texas Sunday when Orioles starter Yefry Ramírez struggled badly, the bullpen and the longball bailed him out and the Orioles escaped Globe Life Park with one win this weekend.

The Orioles beat Texas 9-6 in front of 19,961 today to improve to 34-78 and avoid getting swept four straight. The Orioles are 2-4 on this trip and they are 14-43 away from Oriole Park. Texas falls to 48-64 with its second loss in eight games.

Mark Trumbo, who got his 1,000th career hit last night, today hit a pair of two-run homers. He drove in five runs to tie his best game as an Oriole, and that is one shy of his career high. It was Trumbo's second multi-homer game of the year and 14th in his career.

This game got off to a crazy start as the teams combined for 11 runs over the first three innings. At the end of three, the Orioles led 6-5 and had homered twice.

Texas took a 2-1 lead in the first inning on a two-run single by Robinson Chirinos. Ramírez struggled with command throughout his short outing and walked two in a 30-pitch first. For the Orioles, Jace Peterson led off the game with a single off righty Drew Hutchison and later scored on Trumbo's single for the 1-0 lead.

The Orioles took a 4-2 lead in the second when Austin Wynns hit a three-run homer. His third of the year scored Trey Mancini and Joey Rickard, who both walked against Hutchison. Wynns has three big league homers in 37 at-bats. He hit four this season for Triple-A Norfolk in 139 at-bats. The O's 4-2 lead didn't hold, however, as Texas scored three and knocked Ramírez out in the home second. Ramírez walked three more in the inning, and that fueled the rally that put Texas ahead 5-4.

Ramírez had a rough day. Over 1 2/3 innings he gave up five hits, five runs and five walks. Only 34 of his 69 pitches went for strikes. His ERA increased to 5.66 and he's allowed 14 runs over 11 2/3 his past three starts.

This capped a terrible weekend for three of four O's starters. Dylan Bundy went six strong last night, but in this four-game series O's starters combined to pitch just 12 1/3, allowing 24 hits and 24 runs (21 earned). Andrew Cashner, David Hess and Ramírez combined to allow 22 runs (20 earned) over 6 2/3 innings.

Trailing 5-4, the Orioles got the lead on Trumbo's two-run homer in the third. He hit a 2-2 changeup out to left for his 14th homer and a 6-5 lead. In the fifth, Jonathan Villar hit his first Orioles homer to make it 7-5. He led off with a shot to left for his seventh of the season.

Villar had a nice first Orioles series at the plate, including three hits today. He went 8-for-17 with a homer, two RBIs, two runs and his first Orioles stolen base. Renato Núñez went 2-for-4 today for his fourth multi-hit game over his past five contests. He is 10-for-20 in that span. The Orioles' four homers today came after they went homerless here on Friday and Saturday nights.

Trumbo's first two-run homer had given the Orioles the lead, and his second one extended it. The two-run shot in the seventh off Matt Moore made it a 9-5 Orioles lead.

The Orioles bullpen came up huge today. Tanner Scott was called on in the second inning. He got the inning's last out. Then through the home seventh, Scott, Donnie Hart and Miguel Castro combined for 5 1/3 scoreless on one hit with 11 strikeouts. Paul Fry gave up a run in the eighth, but Mycal Givens got the last four outs for his second career save. The bullpen combined for 12 strikeouts over 7 1/3, allowing one run and one hit.

The Orioles allowed 36 runs in this four-game series, but they didn't get swept by virtue of today's win, which was just their second in their past 15 road games. A win by Texas today would have given the Rangers their first four-game home sweep of Baltimore since July 24-26, 2001.

The Orioles are off Monday and they begin a three-game series in St. Petersburg versus the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.