ARLINGTON, Texas _ In the heat of the 2019 Major League Baseball draft, which will forever be remembered as bringing top pick and potential generational prospect Adley Rutschman into the Orioles' organization, the major league club built to survive this season and ideally earn next year's top pick for their troubles managed to avoid a loss toward that end in a manner only they could.
The Orioles got three home runs from catcher Pedro Severino and six RBIs for left fielder Dwight Smith Jr. _ both career highs _ and nearly watched their seven-run, ninth-inning lead disappear in a tense, 12-11 win over the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park on Tuesday.
Nearly all of their production came from players who have been cast aside by their original teams in the last year, highlighting a roster that's long on major-league long-shots but had all their horses come in at once on Tuesday.
Nearly all of the drama came from a bullpen that has made a sport of turning leads into losses. They almost did again Tuesday when Josh Lucas loaded the bases on an error and two walks, had all three runs score on Richard Bleier's watch before Bleier allowed three of his own, required Mychal Givens to strand the tying run on base with two strikeouts in the ninth.
It obscured what was a lightning-in-a-bottle night for their scrap-heap lineup, and almost prevented what would have been a delightful win following a much-needed day off.
Severino homered in the first, seventh and ninth innings to bump his season total from five to eight, and bring his team-high OPS to .937. He was claimed off waivers in March from the Washington Nationals.
Smith reached base four times and drove in six runs _ three on his first-inning home run and three on a bases-loaded double in the fourth inning. He was designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays in March and acquired in a trade.
Recently-designated outfielder Keon Broxton, acquired in a trade with the New York Mets, added a home run of his own, and Rule 5 pick Richie Martin had two hits of his own.
Leadoff man Hanser Alberto, who was originally designated for assignment by these same Texas Rangers in the fall and changed teams four times before sticking with the Orioles, led them all with four hits against his old club.
The only run that wasn't from the fringes of another roster came on a sacrifice fly by Trey Mancini, and it was all plenty to back up an unremarkable-but-winning start by right-hander Dylan Bundy to improve the Orioles to 19-41 at the 60-game mark of the season.
That it's a team of second-chancers just trying to stay in the big leagues as long as they can isn't necessarily an excuse when they lose, but it's certainly worth noting when players who largely have the talent but lack the consistency to show it on a daily basis at this level do it all at once.
Rangers starter Drew Smyly was made to work from the start, and even as Bundy didn't have his best stuff, he got through it without issue and pitched into the sixth inning, his advantage ever-growing.
Bundy was allowed to come back out for the sixth as he approached 100 pitches, but allowed a single and gave way to a relief train that grew much longer than it had any reason to be.
