Rough stretch vs. AL East ends as O's are swept by Rays

After getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays - and allowing 11 homers and 32 runs in the three games - the Orioles will find out how the other half lives for a short while.

After playing 10 of their last 12 games within the rugged American League East, they will now play their next six series outside of the division. It starts tomorrow with the beginning of a 10-game road trip to Washington, Minnesota and the Chicago White Sox. Home series with Minnesota, Cleveland and the New York Mets follow.

Today at Oriole Park, right-hander Dean Kremer allowed two homers and four runs in the second inning and the Rays were on their way to a 10-1 win and three-game sweep. It's their first series sweep over the Orioles since last Aug. 25-26, but that was a two-game series at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay's last three-game sweep in Baltimore was May 17-19, 2013.

The Orioles were no match for the Rays in this series. Even when leading 5-0 behind John Means last night, they could not beat a surging Rays team that has now scored 63 runs during a seven-game win streak. Tampa Bay is 9-1 in its last 10 games against the Orioles.

Kremer allowed four runs over three innings and falls to 0-4 with a 6.35 ERA. Keegan Akin gave up two runs over three innings and struggling Travis Lakins Sr. allowed three in one frame as his ERA increased to 7.36.

Stevie Wilkerson made his fifth career pitching appearance in the ninth and gave up a run on a solo homer by Joey Wendle, his second homer today.

The Birds have played .400 ball this year, going a combined 8-12 versus the Red Sox and Yankees, but the Rays swept them in this series and had their way with Baltimore pitching.

It seems most teams the Orioles have played this year have had winning records at game time each night. But now nine of the next 13 games will be against teams with a current losing record: Washington (.436), Minnesota (.341), the White Sox (.619) and Minnesota again.

None of this guarantees the team will have success. But it's a fact that the level of competition will lessen here for an extended period, really for the first time all year. The Orioles are also in a stretch now where they are playing 16 games in 16 days, which will be a real test for a pitching staff showing signs of major stress. The O's have allowed 54 runs their last seven games.

But while they were holding their own at times in these division games, this latest stretch was rough on them. They have played 10 of their past 12 in the division and have gone 2-8 in that stretch. They went 1-3 versus Boston, 1-2 against New York and 0-3 against the Rays.

Trey Mancini provided the only O's run. His solo homer to right-center in the fourth off winning pitcher Rich Hill was No. 10. He hit an 0-2 fastball 381 feet to pull the O's within 4-1 at that point. He added to his majors-leading RBI total, which is now 39. He has 22 RBIs in 17 games this month and has knocked in nearly 25 percent of the team's runs for the season.

So the Orioles will leave the challenging AL East for a stretch now, and that begins with three games at Nats Park starting on Friday night. Right-hander Jorge López (1-4, 6.35 ERA) gets the start Friday night with lefty Bruce Zimmermann (2-3, 4.79 ERA) pitching on Saturday and righty Matt Harvey (3-4, 5.93 ERA) getting the ball on Sunday.