Showalter, Webb and Chen following a 3-0 loss

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Orioles lost tonight and still reduced their magic number. It's down to 14. The Yankees and Blue Jays also lost. The Orioles still hold a 9 1/2-game lead in the American League East. Orioles manager Buck Showalter wasn't going to use five relievers tonight, which explains why he turned to Ryan Webb and Evan Meek in a scoreless game. Webb was charged with two runs in a 3-0 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field. Showalter didn't rattle off the names, but it's safe to assume that his list included Darren O'Day, Andrew Miller, Tommy Hunter, Brad Brach and Zach Britton. The Orioles didn't have everyone available, "but we didn't score any runs," Showalter said after the Orioles were shut out for the 10th time. "(Alex) Cobb would be third or fourth in ERA and (Brad) Boxberger's having a great year and so is (Jake) McGee. They put a goose egg up there. It doesn't really matter a whole lot. They pitched a little bit better than we did. "We have five guys we were not going to use tonight, or couldn't in some cases because of what we did to beat Cincinnati three times. "Wei-Yin (Chen) battled his way through it and gave us six innings, made a lot of good pitches, but we just couldn't push anything across. Early on, we stung the ball around and stayed short on him with all the splits he throws. He throws almost 50 percent off-speed pitches and was doing really well with it. Just tip your hat to the pitchers." Wei-Yin Chen survived a 36-pitch second inning and shut out the Rays through the sixth. "He got through it," Showalter said. "That's the key. He got through it and they didn't score a run off him in six innings. We knew we weren't going to be able to duplicate more than likely what Miguel (Gonzalez) did, but we felt like we stayed engaged in that game. It just got away from us a little bit there. But one run, the way they were pitching and where they were in their bullpen was going to be tough." Webb hadn't pitched since Aug. 27. The first two batters in the eighth reached on groundball singles. The go-ahead run scored when second baseman Jonathan Schoop couldn't field Yunel Escobar's sharp ground ball. "We had a lot of ground balls," Showalter said. "Jonathan gets kind of in-between hop at a different depth than (we) normally are. A lot of ground balls that kind of snuck through." Webb was frustrated that he couldn't put away the Rays after getting in favorable counts. "I had two strikes," he said. "I got ahead, but they really weren't quality two-strike pitches. They were kind of out over the plate and (Evan) Longoria kind of hit his well and (Wil) Myers kind of rapped that one for a ground ball that we couldn't get. They weren't great pitches with two strikes. You just have to make more two-strike pitches. That's all." Webb, called up from Triple-A Norfolk as part of the roster expansion, had to do some quick math to calculate how many days had passed between relief appearances. "It's definitely easier to have a rhythm when you're throwing a lot," he said. "I had some bullpens and stuff like that. I felt fine. I liked my stuff today. It's just sometimes you get a little over-excited and over-throw a pitch or something and maybe that's what happened on those sliders. "Overall, I felt good and thought I was getting ground balls for the most part and that's what I do. Just disappointed with the result." Webb took the loss and Chen settled for a no-decision and no run support. The second inning threatened to short-circuit his night. "That inning, I allowed a lot of foul balls and so I kind of struggled with my command there, so I feel fortunate that I could get out of it without any runs," Chen said through his interpreter. "After that inning, I tried to be more efficient, so I tried to attack the hitters not wasting any pitches that I don't need to. I hope I can also do that in the future games."