ARLINGTON -- Texas lefty Martin Perez pitched around catastrophe in the first inning, but he and two relievers weren't so lucky in the seventh of an 11-5 loss to Baltimore on Friday night.
Perez, Tom Wilhelmsen and Andrew Faulkner gave up four home runs, including two to Mark Trumbo, in a nine-run frame that spelled doom for Texas in Game 2 of a four-game set against the Orioles.
Perez, in a good spot for six-plus innings and ahead by four runs, left after facing two hitters in the inning, walking Chris Davis to open the seventh and then giving up a two-run homer to Trumbo.
"Martin was still in good shape" going out for the seventh, Texas manager Jeff Banister said. "We felt like he was one more good sinker away from getting another ground-ball double play."
The Rangers had pulled three double plays to that point. There weren't any in the bag for a bullpen -- albeit thin from a heavy workload recently -- that had stranded 17 of 19 inherited runners over the last eight games entering play Friday. Wilhelmsen (1-1, 22.50 ERA) entered to stop the bleeding but instead opened up the wound, giving up four runs on five hits, including two home runs on successive at-bats.
Jonathan Schoop's two-run home run tied the game at 5, and Nolan Reimold followed to give the Orioles a lead.
Baltimore wasn't done with Texas' bullpen.
Faulkner entered and walked Davis -- his second free pass of the frame -- to put runners at first and second for Trumbo, who smacked his second home run of the inning.
The big right-hander accounted for five RBIs in the inning.
In all, the Orioles smacked five home runs between the seventh and eighth (Schoop hit another, off Faulkner, his third career game with multiple homers). Wilhelmsen and Faulkner combined to give up eight runs on seven hits and a walk in 57 pitches thrown.
"We were thin in the bullpen," Banister said. "We needed Tom to come in and get those outs there. They didn't miss much … rough inning all the way around."
Perez made the pitches to get out of a pinch in the first, giving up a leadoff double to Joey Rickard, a walk to Manny Machado and a run-scoring single to Adam Jones. But the Texas lefty struck out the next three hitters -- Davis, Trumbo and J.J. Hardy.
In taking a no-decision, Perez is winless despite quality starts in each of his three starts this season. The lefty from Venezuela now has quality starts in 11 of his past 14 regular-season outings, dating to August.
He also kept alive an impressive streak for Texas starters, who have now allowed three runs or less in 12 consecutive starts to start the season, the longest such streak in club history and the longest since Boston's 16 straight to open the 2013 season.
It's a rare occurrence. Before the Red Sox, no team had put together a streak of 12 or more since Milwaukee in 1990. Since 1913, there have been just 11 streaks of 11 or more quality starts to begin a season in the AL.