A technique I've used is to add classes based on the position in the php. "aftersecond", "afterthird", "afterfourth", "afterfifth"...
Then in the responsive code when I know there are four records per row I add a clear:both to the afterfourth class and so on. It doesn't prevent the words from wrapping onto more than two lines, but it prevents it from throwing off the rest of the page.