"As soon as the door swung open in the visiting bullpen before the bottom of the seventh inning Wednesday night, the Orioles' fortunes changed. For six innings, Jeremy Guthrie gamely protected a one-run lead, escaping one jam after another by retiring the best the Texas Rangers had to offer. But after he ran out of gas on a typical hot and humid night here, six Orioles relievers were used and all but Will Ohman played a role in a 4-3 loss in front of an announced 22,321 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. "It seemed like it was every inning they put the pressure on us, and they ended up getting the win," Guthrie said. "We battled and battled and battled. At the end, I thought we had a real shot to win the game." Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz ended the game with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly to center field that scored Michael Young as Adam Jones' throw sailed wide, but it probably wouldn't have gotten Young even if it had been perfect. It was the Orioles' fourth loss in the past five games and it dropped them to 13-28 on the season. Jason Berken gave up the game-winning sacrifice fly, but he was thrust into a near-impossible situation — the bases loaded and one out — and doesn't share the culpability of several other Orioles relievers. Trying to protect a one-run lead in the seventh, Matt Albers mishandled Julio Borbon's sacrifice bunt attempt, leading to the Rangers' two-run inning. Koji Uehara visibly tired in a 30-pitch eighth and needed Cla Meredith to bail him out and strand two base runners in the inning after the Orioles tied the score in the top half on Cesar Izturis' two-out single. Meredith then gave up a leadoff double to Young in the ninth inning before giving way to Alberto Castillo, who walked Josh Hamilton after getting ahead 0-2 to load the bases and set the stage for Cruz. "There were two key plays in the game," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "One, we didn't get an out on the bunt. Albers made an error on it. And Castillo wound up walking Hamilton after getting ahead 0-2. Those were the two key things." Castillo threw all sliders in the six-pitch at-bat to Hamilton, who fouled off the first two and then watched the next four dart out of the strike zone." http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-rangers-0520-20100519,0,4573675.story
