Mark Trumbo on the inconsistent offense and other clubhouse quotes

On a day when the Orioles got seven innings from their starter, their defense let them down in a three-run fifth inning this afternoon when right fielder Chris Davis lost a liner in the lights and third baseman Manny Machado made an error.

Houston used the three runs that inning to lead its way to a 5-3 win and the Astros took three of four this weekend and went 6-1 against the Orioles this year.

But the Orioles' offense also had another day where it produced three or fewer runs. That has happened for the 11th time in the past 18 games and the 21st time in 35 games since the All-Star break.

Why has the offense been so inconsistent?

"It is hard to say," Mark Trumbo said. "Hitting is tough to explain sometimes. As long as the effort is there, you expect results to follow. Can't guarantee that they will, but what you do know is the guys in the room have a track record and eventually everyone will play to their capabilities and when that happens, the first half is pretty indicative of what you can expect."

Trumbo hit his 37th homer in the ninth inning and Jonathan Schoop hit his 19th in the fourth inning. But the Orioles scored just one other run and had just six hits on the day and just one after the fifth inning as Dallas Keuchel pitched eight innings and Ken Giles worked the ninth.

"We have to gut it out and keep playing hard," Trumbo said. "We're going to need to get some wins here. Obviously to stop this little streak that is going on. But realistically it has been just one week, so we're looking forward to this next series."

The Orioles missed a chance to gain on Toronto and Boston today. They lost for the fifth time in six games and ninth time in 13. They are 9-16 the past 25 games and 16-20 since the All-Star break.

More clubhouse quotes:

Schoop on a 1-5 homestand: "We have a good team and are not doubting ourselves. Just have to flush it out this series and worry about Washington tomorrow. Yovani (Gallardo) threw good. He kept us in the game and we couldn't come through for him."

Schoop, is the lack of runs frustrating or confusing at times?: "I don't want to say none of that. Because we know we can score a lot of runs. But it's baseball and sometimes you score and sometimes you don't. But we just have to keep focused, keep battling and it's going to come."

Parker Bridwell on making his MLB debut: "If I could put it into words I would. But, I don't know, it was just a dream come true. Was pretty nervous before that first pitch and then after that kind of lifted a little weight off my shoulders. It was fun. It was everything I expected. Honestly I was a lot less nervous than I thought it would be. Maybe it was because the crowd was weeding out after the rain or something. But I was kind of calm and pretty happy with myself for being that way. But definitely some nerves flowing."

Bridwell, can you build on scoreless ninth inning after allowing a homer in eighth?: "Oh yeah, of course. Always pride myself on having a short memory. Gave up a bomb and you can't the get the ball back, just move on and worry about the pitch that is coming next."

Gallardo on his outing and the tough fifth inning: "I think I made some pretty good pitches. It wasn't an easy today to begin with. A rain delay for four hours. It's hard. Honestly I was just walking around, pacing around talking to the guys (during the long delay) and try not to think about it too much. Knew they would give me enough time to get mentally ready. The last thing you want to do is think about the game the whole day and by the time the game starts you're mentally drained. Wasn't easy but went out and went as deep in the game as I could. The bullpen had thrown a lot the last couple of days."

Gallardo on a tough weekend for the team: "You are going to run into those stretches. But we have to do whatever we have to do to get both working (offense and pitching) at the same time. As starting pitchers we have to worry about our job and go out and give our team a chance to win. And just come together, like we were doing throughout the year. We've got to keep moving forward and keep working."