Most nights when Gunnar Henderson demolishes a ball the way he did in the first inning, the outcome will be better than this. The Orioles shortstop immediately answered the Texas Rangers’ first-inning run by blasting the game-tying home run.

Henderson came through again in the fifth, when he drove in a second run with a line-drive single. But Henderson’s first multi-hit, multi-RBI game of the season wasn’t part of an offensive eruption. Baltimore was largely stymied by Texas’ pitching staff during the 5-2 Rangers win at Camden Yards in the series opener.

The loss featured more shaky defense from the Orioles (2-2) — including an error from Henderson — and an uneven debut from right-hander Chris Bassitt that created an early deficit. Despite the offensive firepower that flared in Sunday’s win, the Monday version of this offense didn’t string enough knocks together.

They were particularly fooled by right-hander Jack Leiter’s changeup, which generated a 44% whiff rate.

“He started switching to more offspeed, which we kind of figured he might do that if we were ambushing the fastball,” third baseman Coby Mayo said. “To his credit, he was throwing the slider in good spots, started whipping out the cutter a little bit more to righties more than he has ever. And then, changeup was working. So I think he was just putting some of the pitches in good spots, and just a credit to him. It was a good night for him.”

The best late-game opportunity came in the eighth inning, when Texas turned to left-hander Jalen Beeks to face the top of the order. The lineup construction from manager Craig Albernaz puts teams in a bind. They must choose whether to have their lefty face right-handed hitters Taylor Ward and Pete Alonso but match up against Henderson, or vice versa with a righty.

The Rangers (3-1) chose the left-hander and Beeks struck out Henderson. But Ward and Alonso singled to set up a key run-scoring chance.

Baltimore didn’t convert. Adley Rutschman, who doubled earlier in the game, flew out to center and Tyler O’Neill grounded into an inning-ending fielder’s choice. It was set up well for a big inning (right-handed hitters held a career .741 OPS against Beeks entering the game, and four righty swingers faced him).

“Got good pitches to hit but then we just couldn’t cash in when we needed to,” Albernaz said. “But our guys, the at-bats are still there. It’s just, we’re just a click off right now. And that’s something where, when our offense gets going, I think that’s, once everyone kind of starts clicking and stays with himself and passes the baton, I think that’s where our offense is really going to take off.”

Instead, the deficit grew when right-hander Tyler Wells conceded a run for the Orioles in the top of the ninth.

There is a silver lining around Bassitt’s outing, although he probably won’t focus too heavily on it. But the game could’ve gotten even more out of control for the 37-year-old. He stranded the bases loaded in the first inning after allowing one run and he settled down to provide 4 1/3 innings despite needing 60 pitches to complete two frames.

“The walks hurt, but he battled and pitched us into the fifth,” Albernaz said.

But this was, undoubtedly, an inefficient performance that left much to be desired. Bassitt struggled with his command as he walked four batters, and the defensive display from the Orioles wasn’t crisp, either.

“Execution-wise today, I was awful,” Bassitt said.

In the first inning, two plays weren’t made as they should’ve been. On the first, second baseman Blaze Alexander fielded a grounder with runners on first and second, and instead of flipping to second (or tagging the runner), he threw to first base. Instead of runners on the corners with one out, Alexander left two in scoring position. That nullified a double play opportunity.

The next batter hit a high chopper to Bassitt, and while the pitcher set his feet, he yanked the throw home and spiked it past Rutschman, allowing the run to score.

“I grabbed the ball out of my glove and I just didn’t have a grip at all on it,” Bassitt said. “I didn’t think I had time to try to readjust it, so I just tried to get rid of it and, obviously, not great.”

The second inning unraveled further, with five of the first six batters reaching safely. Three more runs scored. Bassitt improved from there by pitching two scoreless innings and recording one out in the fifth. But he handed ample innings over to a bullpen to cover at the beginning of a three-game series.

Left-hander Dietrich Enns and right-hander Rico Garcia combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings before Wells allowed a run late, when the offense’s best chance had already passed.

Those bullpen innings didn’t go unnoticed by Albernaz. He called being a reliever a “thankless job,” and for Enns and Garcia to cover nearly four innings, they kept the rest of the bullpen largely fresh for the remainder of the series.