ARLINGTON, Texas - The Orioles had lost two games in a row and were down four runs tonight in the top of the seventh inning. It looked bad.
It soon bordered on ridiculous, and in a very good way.
Four home runs hit in a nine-run seventh, with Mark Trumbo launching two of them. Jonathan Schoop hit his second homer of the night in the eighth and the Orioles went from critical to cruising, beating the Rangers 11-5 at Globe Life Park.
Trumbo is the first player in club history to homer twice in the same inning, and he drove in five runs. He's hit five home runs in the last five games.
The Orioles also collected four home runs in the same inning Sept. 5, 1995 against the Angels and May 17, 1967 in Boston.
The four home runs were the most by any team in one inning since the Tigers matched that total against the Orioles on June 1, 2013.
The Orioles have scored nine or more runs in three different innings since August 2015 after not doing it since 2006.
Twelve batters came to the plate in the seventh. Chris Davis walked and Trumbo homered. J.J. Hardy singled and Schoop homered to tie the game. Nolan Reimold followed with a home run to give the Orioles a 6-5 lead.
Manny Machado doubled with two outs and scored on Adam Jones' second RBI single of the night. Davis walked again and Trumbo homered again.
Unreal.
Not to be outdone, Schoop hit a monstrous shot leading off the eighth.
Did he get lured into a competition with Trumbo?
"Trumbo is a different level," Schoop said, smiling and shaking his head. "Respect, you know? He's got big pop."
There's plenty of it up and down the lineup.
"No doubt," Trumbo said. "This is where the fun is. The speculation, the preseason, is one thing, but to go and actually see it with your own eyes, in season, this was a really, really fun game for us."
Manager Buck Showalter was hesitant to say too much about Trumbo. Why mess with a good thing?
"I don't want to talk about it. I'm not going to jinx him," Showalter said.
"He's been in a good spot since the first day he walked into Sarasota. The atmosphere he's in fits him well and the guys have really drawn to him. He fits the way we try to do things and need to do things. He's been a real solid contributor early on in the season. He's been good. It goes without saying.
"That's amazing to me that all the great Orioles that that's never happened twice in one inning. Really? Wow."
Vance Worley allowed five runs in the second inning, as the Rangers batted around, and retired 13 of the last 14 to pick up the win. He joined Ubaldo Jimenez as the only Orioles starters to complete six innings.
"It doesn't go overlooked," Showalter said. "That's a mentally, emotionally tough thing you look for in players that they keep competing. He made an adjustment in his pattern a little bit. They hit some balls hard after that that they caught, but he works quick, he's around the plate and guys tend to make good plays behind him. That was the key, keeping us close, within striking distance, and we've got some guys, mix in a couple walks and we can do some things.
"But (Martin) Perez was really good after the first inning. Fortunately, we got him up to almost 30 pitches in the first inning, because there was a long, good outing there somewhere. So that first inning was key for us to get him out of there before the ninth. It looked like he was going to carry that type of stuff."
Worley always talks about pitching for his job, how he can't let up or ignore results.
"We all are. We all are," Showalter said. "That's the mentality everybody has. Not pitching for a job. We're pitching for the Orioles to win, and that's the same thing. Competition's a great thing, but the competition's against the Rangers, not against that type of stuff. But there's a fine line there. You don't get comfortable with anything and that's one of the reasons why he made the club."
Worley had to make an adjustment to keep the Rangers off him.
"I really mixed after that," he said. "They were hitting cutters and sinkers and after that I started going with some more curveballs and changeups and really just mixing both sides of the plate and I think that played a big role in that."
"This is a good hitting ballclub. They're swingers and they hit some good pitches that inning and some things didn't go our way. It's all about just keeping the guys in it. To limit it to the five runs in the six innings so we could have that big inning in the seventh, that's huge. And it's a positive for everybody here that we can still stay in the game like that."
Worley was undone in his debut by a Corey Dickerson home run. The Rangers' Mitch Moreland took him deep tonight on an 89 mph fastball to tie the game.
How did Worley keep from letting the game get away from him and remain positive?
"It's not the first home run I've given up," he said, grinning. "It's really about just staying positive and trusting your stuff. I have a great defense behind me. I'm not a strikeout guy, so I try to let them put the ball in play and they just found holes that inning. After that, if I didn't strike a guy out, it was good defense behind me and that plays into my game."
Showalter was asked whether Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver would have loved this game.
"Earl likes anything that has a W next to the Orioles," he replied.
Here's more from the clubhouse:
Showalter on Schoop: "Jon tied the game up, and against this team in his ballpark, every tack-on run you can get ... To think we'd be thinking about tack-on runs when it was 5-1 and Perez was dealing, that's hard to imagine. That's why you kind of assume the position and see what the game's got in store for you. We've got a good seat every night."
Showalter on why he talked to the umpires after Schoop struck out in the fifth: "All our replay cameras were down. All of them went out for an extended period."
Worley on the team coming back from 5-1 down after losing the last two in Boston: "We're all pretty positive with each other. Even if it's a bad at-bat or a play doesn't go our way on the field, it's all about how we bounce back and push each other to have success. And I think that seventh inning really showed, one guy hits a home run and next thing you know everybody's doing it. It spreads like wildfire."
Worley on whether he left a good impression and earned another start: "You tell me. I don't know. I think it showed a lot to let me go back out there and get six after having that rough second inning and I felt like I was just getting stronger as the game went on. Apparently, my pitch count was higher than they wanted and they just said that's it for today and walk out of there with a W."
Trumbo on being locked in: "I don't know. I don't want to overthink it. But in the past I've been a little streaky when it comes to the power. It's always a nice thing when it happens for us and tonight it was a really close game until we were able to do a little bit of damage and separate things."
Trumbo on bouncing back from losses: "This is a big one. This is a big shot in the arm, confidence wise. Huge credit to Vance for going back out there and shutting them down and giving us a chance to get back into this thing."
Trumbo on the importance of Davis' two walks: "There's no doubt. You don't want to leave anything. There were a lot of fireworks tonight. But him going up there and being patient like he did, and there were some close pitches, too, allowed myself and a few other guys to kind of feed off that. Those are the little things that make the big differences. It's just a testament to him being as disciplined as he is."
Reimold on being part of the outburst: "It was a lot of fun. A lot of guys in the lineup can hit the ball a long way. We feel like we're never out of the game. Even in the later innings, we can score a lot of runs still. We never feel like we're out of the game."
Reimold on making a case for more playing time: "I'm doing whatever I've got to do, just trying to take advantage of the opportunities when I am in there. But it feels good to get the win and contribute to that."
Schoop on the outburst: "It's special. We scored nine runs in one inning, and we came back. That's why we battle and play the whole nine innings. The first couple of innings, he was pitching really good. Then after that, we got at him. They took him out and we did a good job with their bullpen."
Schoop on starting out like last season before the injury: "I feel better because we're winning. That's the most important thing, the team is winning and everybody is having fun. When we win, everybody's helping. I can hit four home runs. If we lose, it don't matter. But if you win, that's the most important thing."
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