Severino homers 3 times as O's score 12, nip Rangers

Pedro Severino homered three times while Dwight Smith Jr. homered and drove in six runs as the Baltimore Orioles hung on to defeat the Texas Rangers 12-11 in the opener of a three-game series Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas. Severino hit two solo homers and a two-run shot to finish 3-for-5 with four RBIs. He and Smith, who went 3-for-4, combined to drive in 10 of the Orioles' runs, and Baltimore also got a home run from Keon Broxton.

Hanser Alberto went 4-for-5 and scored twice for Baltimore. Dylan Bundy (3-6) got the win, even through the Orioles right-hander struggled at times in his five innings. He gave up three runs on six hits, walked two and struck out four in running his pitch count to 96, 59 for strikes.

Texas starter Drew Smyly was unable to shake his early-season problems continued. He allowed seven runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings and was in trouble almost from the beginning of the game. He walked two and struck out two. The Orioles jumped on Smyly (1-4) quickly thanks to some first-inning power and led 4-0. Smith belted a three-run homer to left-centre that put the Orioles in front for good, and Severino made it back-to-back homers.

Texas answered in the bottom of the first with a leadoff home run from Shin-Soo Choo to slice the margin to three. But Baltimore scored in the second on a Trey Mancini sacrifice fly for a 5-1 margin. Elvis Andrus drove in a run for Texas on a sacrifice fly in the third to make it 5-2, and then the Orioles took command with a four-run fourth inning.

Broxton's homer to lead off the inning gave Baltimore a 6-2 edge. Later in the inning, Smith's bases-loaded double scored all three runners to put the Orioles up 9-2. Severino added a two-run homer in the seventh for his second blast of the night, and the Orioles led 11-3 lead. His third homer came in the ninth for a 12-5 lead.

But Texas scored six runs in the ninth and threatened to tie or win the game. Logan Forsythe's two-run double cut the lead to 12-10, and one out later, Choo singled him in.

Mychal Givens came on and got the final two outs, including an Andrus strikeout with two outs, but the strike three got past Severino, who then threw him out at first to lock up Givens' fifth save. 

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