A few notes and quotes from loss No. 50 (Dietz is an All-Star)

Well, the Orioles finally scored a few runs. But they still lost 5-4 on Saturday to the Miami Marlins. The Orioles are 19-50 and have lost nine in a row overall and 11 straight at home.

That's a lot of losing.

The last time the Orioles lost 50 games this fast was actually not that long ago. The 2010 Orioles also started 19-50. That club began the year going 19-52, but they played three games over .500 from that point on, going 47-44 to finish at 66-96 for the season.

The most losses ever by an Orioles team was 107 in 1988. At their current pace, with a win percentage of .275, the 2018 club would post a final record of 45-117.

Yesterday's four runs and 11 hits sure beats getting shutout or held to one run, but it was hardly a breakout of any kind. It was just the fifth time in the last 25 games the Orioles have scored four runs or more. They have not scored more than five in the past 19 games and have done that just once in the last 25 games.

Turning to pitching, did anyone expect Alex Cobb to have a record of 2-9 with a 7.14 ERA? He leads the majors in losses. His career high for losses is 10 and that was last year when he had a good season for Tampa Bay, going 12-10 with a 3.66 ERA. Now his ERA is nearly twice that. His career record heading into this year was 48-35 with a 3.50 ERA. Last season his ERA was 3.07 his last 17 starts.

He didn't sign until late March, but I certainly expected to see much better numbers than this and long before this point. Cobb's ERA is 5.92 at home and 7.91 on the road. He's allowed five runs or more six times and opponents are batting .341 against him.

The longball has been a problem and he allowed two homers to J.T. Realmuto yesterday. Over his career before 2018, he allowed 0.8 homers/nine innings. This year that mark is 1.86 per nine innings.

Cobb will certainly point the finger at himself and during his interview yesterday after the game he said he has to "clean up those poorly-executed fastballs."

He added that, "When you have a good hitter up there, you can't fall behind to those guys and then give them a cookie down the middle. They are going to do that with it. Yeah, it's frustrating that it was one guy (doing so much damage). But it's more frustrating that I let him win the at-bats before he actually hit the home run."

The O's rotation was on a pretty good roll until recently. But over the last six games they have just one quality start and a 6.75 ERA. In the five games before this stretch, the rotation's ERA was 2.27. And the staff had a run of nine quality starts the previous 10 games with a 3.34 ERA.

Another Shorebirds All-Star: Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds right-handed pitcher Matthias Dietz has been added to the Northern Division roster for the 2018 South Atlantic League All-Star Game.

Dietz joins third baseman Trevor Craport, first baseman Seamus Curran and outfielder Zach Jarrett as the Shorebirds' representatives at the 59th annual midsummer classic, to be held at First National Bank Field in Greensboro on Tuesday.

In his second season playing for Delmarva, Dietz has emerged as one of the more formidable arms in the Sally League. The No. 26 Orioles prospect is 6-1 with a 3.07 ERA over 11 first-half starts. He leads the team with 59 strikeouts over 55 2/3 and his six wins are tied with Cameron Bishop for the team lead and tied for third in the SAL. Dietz was the Orioles' minor league Pitcher of the Month for May. He went 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA and 24 strikeouts over four May starts.