Britton takes first loss as O's skid reaches five

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

April 15, 2011, 5:42pm

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After starting the year at 6-1, the Orioles have now lost five in a row to fall back to 6-6. Zach Britton took his first major league loss as Cleveland scored four in the third inning to beat the lefty and the Orioles 8-2 in the start of a three-game series. Britton gave up five runs and eight hits over six innings in falling 2-1 with an ERA of 2.75. Asdrubal Cabrera had a pair of two-run singles as the Tribe improved to 9-4. Justin Masterson improved to 3-0 with an ERA of 1.33, allowing just one run over seven innings. He is 6-3 with a 2.45 ERA over his last 16 games dating to last season. The Orioles have scored just 12 runs total in the five consecutive losses as they were held to eight hits, all singles, tonight. Luke Scott had an RBI single in the 4th and Mark Reynolds an RBI hit in the 9th. The O's have now scored five runs or less in 11 of 12 games and have had 10 hits or more just three times. Vladimir Guerrero went 0-for-4 as his seven-game batting streak ended. The O's fall to 0-3 on the road trip which continues Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Cleveland when Jeremy Guthrie will make the start for the Birds.