Rotation starts to falter as Orioles drop back-to-back games

It was a frustrating first game of the series for the Orioles last night in Texas. They saw a 3-1 lead quickly unravel when Texas scored five in the last of the sixth. They stranded three runners in scoring position in the fifth and sixth innings, including squandering a second-and-third opportunity with no outs in the fifth.

Mark Trumbo hit another homer as he drilled a 1-1 pitch from Cole Hamels out to right-center in the fourth inning. Trumbo has already showed us that he can hit the ball out all over the ballpark. He can turn on the ball and drive it out to left or take the pitch where it's thrown and drive it with authority to the opposite field.

Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard turned on a ball last night, driving a Hamels pitch to left for an RBI double in the third inning. It was another impressive at-bat by Rickard.

So far this season we've seen Rickard often get a base hit by taking the ball where it is pitched and hitting it to center, right or right-center. He is certainly not afraid to go the other way to get a hit.

"More just trying to relax and see the ball," Rickard said of his approach on offense. "Seeing the ball real late just kind of helps me keep the barrel in the zone and go with the pitch.

"I always try to stay more up the middle. If guys have some good velocity, maybe the pitch gets on me fast or I try to go with the pitch."

Rickard's bat has slowed a bit. He was batting .444 after the first five games and is batting .167 (3-for-18) over the last four games.

So the Orioles have their first losing streak of the year, it we can call two games a streak. The ups and downs of the season will be seen a lot over 162 games. We'll see how they bounce back tonight and over the rest of this series against Texas.

The Orioles went 1-6 against the Rangers last season and have now lost five in a row to that team, getting outscored 22-7.

They had a chance to pin a rare loss on Hamels last night. He was 9-1 in his first 14 starts with Texas. The Rangers are now 12-0 in his last 12 starts. He left trailing 3-1 and gave up three runs over 5 1/3, but the Rangers rally took him off the hook for the loss and extended that run to 12 straight wins in his starts.

Vance Worley (0-0, 3.86 ERA) takes the mound tonight and will try give this starting rotation a needed lift. The Orioles starters got off to a fast start, pitching to an ERA of 1.42 over the first four games. But the rotation ERA is 7.56 over the past five games.

The O's starters have pitched 5 1/3 or fewer innings in six straight and eight of nine games so far. They have just one quality start.

The starting pitching was the biggest question mark for the Orioles coming into this year. After nine games, the club has an impressive 7-2 record, but the rotation questions remain.