Buck Showalter on Miguel Gonzalez, Wei-Yin Chen and a 6-3 loss

The Orioles lost their fifth consecutive game tonight and their 11th in the last 12. Returning to their home ballpark didn't reverse their slide.

The Rays posted a 6-3 win at Camden Yards to drop the Orioles five games below .500 for the first time since June 6. The Orioles (63-68) have been held to three runs or fewer in 11 of their last 12 games and they're 0-60 when trailing after the eighth inning.

On top of that, we learned tonight that Miguel Gonzalez received a cortisone injection in his right shoulder and will undergo an MRI on Tuesday. His elbow also is sore, which explains why manager Buck Showalter mentioned discomfort in "a couple places."

"He had an injection in his shoulder, which is a two- or three-day thing to recover from," Showalter said after tonight's game. "I think we'll have a pretty good idea of what we're dealing with tomorrow. We want to make sure we get a couple pictures, make sure there's not any damage that we don't know about before we proceed with the next step."

The Orioles fell behind 6-0 tonight and were scoreless for 19 consecutive innings before Adam Jones' RBI single in the seventh. They ran up Chris Archer's pitch count, but couldn't take full advantage.

Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen lasted only 4 2/3 innings and allowed five runs and nine hits. The Rays homered twice off him.

"We did some good things geting some people out there," said Showalter, whose club went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11. "It seems like we're always a hit away. Had trouble grouping a whole lot together other than one inning. That's part of it. It doesn't always work out like you'd like to have it drawn up every night.

"Wei-Yin started out pretty good there. He had some depth there to his breaking ball, but it seems like every time he made a mistake with his fastball location, he paid for it. But we talked about the challenge of pitching when you're not real sure what you're going to have to work with, but that doesn't change physically how you go about pitching. You've got to get people out. I thougth we'd make a run at them. We did, but we were just a hit away with some situations with some people out there. But we didn't take advantage.

"I was impressed with the at-bats. We had (Archer) over 100 pitches in the fifth inning. We had a lot better quality at-bats than we've been having. We just couldn't finish off those innings. When he went back out there or the sixth at 100-plus, you think you're going to benefit from that, but we weren't able to keep him at bay and we created a margin we couldn't overcome."

Archer shut out the Orioles on four hits over six innings and improved to 12-10 with a 2.78 ERA.

"He's a real good pitcher," Showalter said. "I thought we were as good as he was tonight. We just couldn't get that last hit. I was really proud of the at-bats our guys had off him. Obviously, his stuff is real good, but we've competed real well against him over the years. That's hard to do. But you know you're going to have to have a pretty well-pitched game because what opportunities you get off him, you better make use of it. But like I said, I was happy about the at-bats off him.

"We got some deep counts and really were selective off him. Plus slider, that velocity, a real athletic guy. That's why he's one of the best pitchers in the American League, but we had our opportunities against him."

Chen was "OK," Showalter said. Not good enough.

"It wasn't as good as he's capable," Showalter said. "I thought the way he started out, I thought we were going to have a really good outing from him, which we needed. He's a couple pitches away from it. I thought the two-seamer he was trying to go down and away, they jerked across the plate that they hit out of the ballpark was a pitch he'd like to have back."

Manny Machado made his first major league start at shortstop and looked comfortable in the field. He had a great backhanded stop deep in the hole and fired to first for the out, with Matt Wieters making the scoop.

"Manny was really energized by the opportunity," Showalter said. "I can tell you he was excited about it for the right reasons. Something where we were trying to give a little bit different look tonight. I thought he handled himself well. He made a really good play over there in the hole and started a good double play with Jon (Schoop). I think about all the things those two guys have been through together and to get an opportunity to play up the middle together tonight. I thought he handled himself well. He had some really good at-bats, too.

"It's frustrating for our guys to see all the things that go on behind the scenes that you all aren't privy to. How frustrating it is for them, the things they're trying to do to get it righted and not get a return for it. I feel for the want-to. Believe me, it's a constant theme of our guys trying to get it going, and I still feel when they do, somebody's going to pay."

Machado will move back to third base on Tuesday and Paul Janish will start at shortstop against Rays left-hander Drew Smyly.

Showalter found encouragement in the improved at-bats tonight. A tiny victory for a team starved for wins.

"Much better," he said. "It didn't show up on the scoreboard, but that's the only things we judge it by at the end. Our guys know that. They talked about some things today, like they do every day. If I told you everything that goes on from 11 o'clock in the morning to the first pitch, that's what everybody does. We don't have a corner on it. We're trying to do something that 29 other clubs are trying to do. It's a challenge."

The Orioles will select Steve Johnson's contract from Triple-A Norfolk on Tuesday and decide later whether to put Gonzalez on the disabled list. They can avoid it with the expanded roster.

"If you DL him, you bring some other people into play that haven't been down for 10 days," Showalter said. "There's a lot of moving legalities with the roster management that we have to stay on top of."