Another look at Chris Tillman's struggles as O's get swept

ANAHEIM, Calif. - For the Orioles, from the clubhouse to the manager's office, it has to be brutal to watch Chris Tillman struggle so badly. He was good for the team for a long time, but it is becoming harder by the day to envision those days returning.

He throws seven scoreless against the Tigers and then gets just three outs last night. Tillman allowed seven hits and seven runs in one inning plus two batters as the Los Angeles Angels routed the Orioles 12-3 to complete a three-game sweep.

"It is, it is (hard to watch him struggle)," manager Buck Showalter said. "He cares so much, but nobody understands what this is all about more than Chris, and what's at stake. I'm sure it's real frustrating for him, as it was for us, for him to take what we hoped was a really good step last time out and then have a tough outing like tonight."

The Angels got seven hits in 10 at-bats versus Tillman, and his fastball velocity was just 88.4 mph. He is 1-5 with a 9.24 ERA. The Orioles bullpen had to pitch seven innings last night, but Showalter didn't think they would need to summon a fresh arm from the minors in Oakland tonight.

"Because of the way we spread it, I think we'll have (Pedro) Araujo and Mike Wright (tonight) and quite frankly, Chris could probably pitch out of the 'pen on Saturday if we needed him."

Tillman was asked why he could have been so good one start and so bad the next?

"Execution. It all came down to execution. Stuff was about the same, I just didn't execute at a very good clip tonight. Falling behind and not executing is not a good recipe for success."

Showalter would not provide any insight into his thinking when asked if Tillman would now lose his rotation spot or even his roster spot, saying that if he had made any decisions Tillman would not be learning about them from the media.

Tillman was asked if he is concerned about being pulled from the rotation?

"Can't think about it," he said. "I've got to move forward and try to get better. If you start thinking about that kind of stuff, you will not get very far. It's not fun. It's not fun. But I know the work that is going in. I see it day in and day out. You know what? That is all you can really ask from the guys. Put the work in and show up ready to play. I'm not seeing anything otherwise. It's frustrating. It's frustrating for everyone. I didn't give us much of a chance tonight. But keeping going and play better."

In falling to 8-23 the Orioles once again started a game with no offense to speak of. They were no-hit into the sixth inning.

Chris Davis is getting the brunt of fan criticism and he's batting just .184. But he hit a ground ball into left for an RBI single last night, and he seldom hits grounders the other way, so maybe that is a good sign for him.

Center fielder Adam Jones spoke about his struggling teammate.

"The best part about him is he's a professional. We are all frustrated. But it's part of the game. If you read comments from everybody like, 'He makes all this money, he can't be frustrated. He's supposed to always hit.' This game is frustration. You have to know how to handle failure. Nowhere in the world can you do things at a 30 percent clip and be considered good. We have to maintain a mentally tough attitude. No excuses. We've just got to ride it out," Jones said.

The Orioles have the look of a team that needs a few days off to regroup. But in baseball you don't get that chance. They play again tonight at Oakland.

They have been losing with the help of their offense, defense and pitching. It's been a team effort to be 8-23 bad. It's a hole that seems too large to climb out of, even with so many games left to play. As the Orioles headed for a plane to get to Oakland last night, you had to wonder if their season had spiraled too far out of control to get back on track at this point.