The epitaph of Kevin Millwood's brief career as an Oriole will likely be summarized some day with a reference to one lousy season, 2010, and one inning, the first.
The 35-year-old right-hander continued his long and futile season in Baltimore, the tone set in a matter of the first seven pitches he threw in Sunday's 6-4 loss to the Texas Rangers at Camden Yards.
Another shaky first inning for Millwood, capped by a first-pitch, three-run home run by Josh Hamilton that landed just out of center fielder Felix Pie's reach, provided the Rangers with a 3-0 lead and sucked much of the humid air out of the mostly empty ballpark.
It marked the 12th time in his past 16 starts that Millwood gave up at least two runs in the first inning.
A subsequent three-run homer -- this one in the fifth inning by designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero after Millwood all but intentionally walked Hamilton despite getting ahead in the count 1-2 -- put the Orioles behind 6-1.
Hamilton's home run was his 28th of the season and second in two days against the Orioles. Guerrero's was his 22nd of the season and his sixth career home run (to go along with 20 RBIs) against Millwood, who tied his career high for home runs surrendered in a season (26).
"When you get a lineup like that with those type of 3-4 hitters, the focus has got to be so much on the two guys hitting in front of them, make sure those guys [Hamilton and Guerrero] hit without people out there," said Orioles manager Buck Showalter, whose team opens a six-game trip to Chicago and Anaheim, Calif., on Tuesday against the White Sox. "It was the difference in the game, obviously."
While Showalter pointed out that the two Rangers sluggers have done that to many other pitchers throughout their careers, Millwood said: "You've got to make good pitches to them. The ball that Hamilton hit out and the ball Guerrero hit out weren't good pitches."
Showalter also tried to deflect some of the criticism away from Millwood because of the 21-minute delay after a brief downpour right before the game was supposed to start. But Millwood wouldn't use that as an excuse, either.
"I got a ball up to [leadoff hitter Elvis] Andrus he hit, walked Michael Young [on four pitches] and then threw one right down the middle to Hamilton," said Millwood, who lost his sixth straight decision and saw his record drop to 2-14, tying the most losses in a season in his 14-year career.
It also prevented Millwood from removing the Rangers, his previous employer, from the list of teams he has never beaten, along with the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves, for whom he pitched his first six years in the major leagues.
Aside from the grounds crew taking off the tarp after the rain stopped, about the only things the announced crowd of 14,788 had to cheer were Luke Scott's two-run homer in the sixth off Rangers starter Tommy Hunter and Ty Wigginton's home run in the ninth off reliever Neftali Feliz. The Rangers' closer quickly silenced whatever fans remained by striking out the side, ending the game on a 100 mph fastball past Pie.
The loss put the Orioles (44-81) on the brink of clinching their 13th straight losing season and prevented a fourth series win in the six played since Showalter took over. It would have matched the number of series Orioles had won under Dave Trembley and Juan Samuel this season combined.
As has been the case during part of Millwood's struggles, the Orioles did not offer much in the way of run support or show much patience against Hunter. Regularly swinging early in the count, the Orioles made the struggling 24-year-old right-hander look like Catfish Hunter.
"As a hitter, you've got to come up with a game plan before the game, and you've got to go with it," said Wigginton, who singled before Scott's 422-foot home run to right in the sixth. "If you get a pitch where you're looking [to hit], you've got to be aggressive on it. He just made good pitches. A lot of his outs were ground balls, which means he had good movement down as well."
It resulted in Hunter's breezing perfectly through the Orioles for the first time through the order in 28 pitches. It also resulted in Hunter's (10-2) getting 17 ground-ball outs in eight innings. Hunter, who set a career high with his 10th win this season, had won his first eight decisions but had not made it past the third inning in three of his past four starts.
"The last thing you want to do with a day like today, heatwise, and a day game is to give him some short innings, which he had," Showalter said. "You could tell early on that we weren't able to extend him some. He really didn't have a tough inning for quite a while. He's been doing this. That's why he is who he is and is having the success he is."
Unfortunately, for the Orioles and Millwood, Sunday was nothing new, either.
Asked how difficult this season has been, Millwood said: "It's a lot less fun than winning a whole bunch of games, no doubt about that. I worry about the stuff I can control; that is getting people out and making good pitches. I just haven't made enough good pitches."
don.markus@baltsun.com
Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by The Baltimore Sun. The Sun Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.