Surging Rangers Rock Valenzuela : Baseball: In first start for Orioles, he gives up five hits and seven runs during 2 1/3 innings of 8-3 loss.

On a night when the Baltimore Orioles needed a fairy tale, Fernando Valenzuela went to the mound at Arlington Stadium and pitched precisely like someone who hadn’t started a major league game since 1991 and hadn’t posted a big league victory since ’90.

Any notions that Valenzuela was going to make a wondrous return to the baseball spotlight Tuesday night were smashed by the Texas Rangers. They pounded Valenzuela into an early exit in his first start in the majors in 22 months, and they added to the Orioles’ early season woes with an 8-3 victory before a crowd of 15,112.

The Rangers remained atop the American League West and improved to 6-1 for the fifth time in franchise history, while the Orioles dropped further into the AL East cellar. They’re 1-6 for the third time in club history, matching their second-worst beginning ever (they were 0-21 in 1988).

The Rangers wasted little time in removing doubt about the outcome. They hammered Valenzuela for five hits and seven runs, six of them earned, during his 2 1/3 innings. The veteran left-hander also walked two batters, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter during his first start as an Oriole, and Texas used a two-run second inning and a five-run third to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 7-1 lead.

“It was a bad outing, everything I did was wrong,” said Valenzuela, whose only previous appearance as an Oriole was a one-inning relief stint against the Seattle Mariners last Friday. “I had only pitched one inning in 13 days and I think that hurt me. I hope to get another chance. If I do, I’ll be ready.”

Baltimore Manager Johnny Oates, who could be heard in the hall outside the dressing door chewing out the Orioles for 10 minutes after the game, said Valenzuela was “overthrowing.”

“He was just throwing too hard and the ball was all over the place. It looked like to me he was rushing himself.”

Said Dean Palmer, who was hit by one of Valenzuela’s pitches: “He didn’t throw well. He’ll have better days.”

Added Gary Redus, who had 40 at-bats against Valenzuela in the National League and hit a homer off him Tuesday: “His pitches didn’t seem to have the same zip they used to.”

Ranger starter Kenny Rogers picked up the victory with a 6 1/3-inning, seven-hit, three-run performance.

The biggest blow for the Rangers--a three-run double by catcher Ivan Rodriguez--actually came against reliever Alan Mills, just after Valenzuela departed. But Valenzuela loaded the bases to set the stage for that disaster.

Redus hit a second-inning home run off Valenzuela, the Rangers’ 10th homer in four games this season (all Texas wins) against Baltimore. Juan Gonzalez had two doubles among his three hits.

Valenzuela, 32, says he never lost hope that he’d get back to the majors, even when a lack of interest in the Cy Young Award winner forced him to spend last year pitching in the Mexican League.

This wasn’t Valenzuela’s Oriole debut. That came on Friday in Seattle, when he pitched a three-up, three-down seventh inning in mop-up relief. But this was when things really started to matter for Valenzuela and the Orioles.

The early returns were not encouraging, as Valenzuela emerged from Tuesday night’s stint with an earned run average of 16.20.

This was his first major league start since June 12, 1991, when he lasted 1 2/3 innings for the Angels during an 8-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. Valenzuela’s last big league victory came 31 months and two teams ago--he won in Cincinnati for the Dodgers on Sept. 14, 1990. He has been pummeled for 19 hits and 17 runs (15 of them earned) over nine innings during his three starts in the majors since the Dodgers released him in March of 1991.