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ARLINGTON – For their home opener, the Texas Rangers didn't get the kind of pitching they had on their opening road trip. That's too bad.

They did, however, get the kind of hitting they had for much of the road trip.

And that's bad, too.

The sellout crowd of 48,808 probably left Rangers Ballpark muttering about the same ol' sorry pitching, and that's understandable since Baltimore pounded out an 8-1 beating of the Rangers on Tuesday afternoon.

But the Rangers' pitching has been good enough for them to be better than 3-4 right now. Anytime the Rangers have scored more than two runs, this team has won.

But Texas has been held to one or two runs four times in seven games. It's a puzzling start for a team that appears to have a potent lineup and has gotten good production at the bottom of the order from Gerald Laird and Ben Broussard.

"Guys really wanted to get that big knock today, because you could tell the crowd really wanted a chance to get into the game," shortstop Michael Young said.

They never got that chance.

The Orioles – who by the way are 6-1, the best record in the American League – led 2-0 after two innings, 4-0 after three and 6-0 after six.

It's just one game, and we have seen the Rangers look impressive in home openers, only to go south during the season. Think Robinson Tejeda and his winning pitching performance against the Boston Red Sox in last year's game.

Wasn't exactly a sign of things to come.

But situational hitting is something the Rangers have talked about improving upon for years, and we all too often just don't see it.

In their two blowout wins – 11-6 and 10-4 against the Angels – they were great, going 8-for-20 with men in scoring position. In their other five games, they are 4-for-36 (.111) with runners in scoring position.

"I think early on we've seen some good pitching," said second baseman Ian Kinsler, who had the only RBI but bounced into a pair of double plays. "[Erik] Bedard was good and [Jered] Weaver was good.

"Today we just couldn't string anything together."

And that was against Brian Burres, who surrendered eight runs to Texas in two-thirds of an inning in last summer's record-smashing 30-3 game in Baltimore.

"The guy pitched well today, but he's a guy we've got to beat," said outfielder Marlon Byrd, speaking of players who can't string anything together.

Rangers fans really came to appreciate the outfielder in 2007 when he batted .307 and drove in 70 runs in just 109 games.

In 2008, Byrd is 0-for-15 with five strikeouts. He's extremely anxious to get that .000 off the scoreboard when he comes to the plate.

"It's a little past frustration now," Byrd said. "I'm just trying to get that little dink to fall in there for me. I don't think anyone's ever gone an entire season without getting a hit. I would hate to be the first."

The Rangers are averaging 4.4 runs per game, which is close to getting the job done. But a team is better served to score four one day and five the next than to put up an 11 followed by a one and a two.

Still, in getting five solid pitching starts in seven games, the Rangers will take that every time. They can compete with that as long as the bats come around.

There's no reason to think they won't.

And there's no acceptable reason that it can't start happening right away.