30-3 (continued)

"An ugly game at Camden Yards"

By Childs Walker and Jeff Zrebiec Sun Reporters
August 23, 2007

It was a loss of epic proportions.

On the day Dave Trembley was introduced as the Orioles' permanent manager, his team greeted him with the worst performances in franchise history yesterday, losing to the Texas Rangers, 30-3, in the first game of a doubleheader.

A little perspective: No major league team had scored as many as 30 runs in a game in 110 years.

It has happened nine times in baseball history, the last being when the Chicago Colts drubbed the Louisville Colonels, 36-7, on June 29, 1897, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"You need to have a real short memory," Trembley said in a brief post-game session with reporters, "and you let it go."

However, the Orioles' misery continued in the second game, when the Rangers pounded out 11 more hits to complete their doubleheader sweep with a 9-7 victory.

Camden Yards was about two-thirds empty when the first game started and pretty quiet even when the home team jumped out to a 3-0 lead by the bottom of the third inning.

But more and more fans arrived just as the game was slipping out of the Orioles' control.

Fans started to get restless and boo the home team during the Rangers' nine-run sixth inning. When the inning finally ended, the Orioles received a standing ovation.

The sarcastic applause continued when the Rangers scored 16 runs in the last two innings.

Fans behind the Orioles' dugout and on the flag court, where the final home run landed, were giving each other high fives.

Ranger Marlon Byrd, who hit a grand slam in the victory, said afterward, "You start to feel bad for the guys on their team."

Trembley, who nearly broke down with emotion earlier in the day at the news conference during which it was announced that his contract would be extended through the 2008 season, sat stoically in his dugout seat, staring straight ahead.

There was nothing he could do.