Buck Showalter: "We're going to have to get hot in order to get in this thing"

Kevin Gausman is the confirmed starter for Wednesday night's series finale against the Rays that also closes the abbreviated homestand. Manager Buck Showalter said he may adjust the rotation Saturday night in Toronto.

The Orioles still prefer to have Wei-Yin Chen pitch in New York.

"Yeah, Kevin's going to start tomorrow," Showalter said. "Like I said before, let's see how we come through tonight's game. If we had gotten a little longer start, we might have done something different."

Showalter confirmed that Miguel Gonzalez's MRI didn't show any structural damage in his right shoulder or elbow. Gonzalez may not go on the disabled list and there's a chance that he will pitch again this season.

"It was a positive report," Showalter said following an 11-2 loss to the Rays before 22,987 at Camden Yards. "Didn't find any structural damage. That's good. We're going to let that quiet down, see if we can get him ready to pitch again.

"It was, I thought, as good news as you could expect. I know he was really concerned. Every time you have Tommy John and some tenderness in that area. Now we'll go on with the treatment and see how quick we can get him back."

Showalter doesn't think the Orioles will need to call up a reliever for Wednesday night. They could use a quality start from Gausman and an offense that scores in more than one inning.

The Orioles have matched their season-high six-game losing streak. A win in Kansas City is all that separates them.

Chris Tillman was charged with seven runs, tying is season high, in only 4 2/3 innings.

"Like a lot of our outings, looks crisp at times, but couldn't stay away from a big inning," Showalter said. "They strung a lot together, something we haven't been doing, and it snowballed from there. We had a lot of new guys and it just kind of snowballed after that. We didn't pitch very well tonight."

Or hit very well, considering that the only scoring came on Chris Davis' two-run homer in the ninth inning.

"Effort's fine," Showalter said. "I'm always going to give credit to their guys. They're close to, I don't know if they're leading the league in pitching, but close to it. They're a good pitching club. That's why they're competitive. One of the big reasons. And (Drew) Smyly was and is a much sought after pitcher. You can see why he's so good. But we'd obviously like to take a little more competitive at-bats.

"We're going through a period where every time we do hit the ball hard, it's at somebody and they're putting the ball in play and you can get fortunate that way when you put the ball in play like they do. They had some base hits that found holes, ground balls and other things, but that happens when you put the ball in play some. We had double digit strikeouts again tonight."

The Orioles also had another large deficit that they couldn't overcome.

"They compete and they fight back, and they will," Showalter said. "Certainly we're tough critics of ourselves privately, but it's never the time for me to publicly ... That's the easy thing for me to do and I don't ... But they have as high expectations for themselves as I do. I have confidence they'll figure it out and we'll try to help along the way."

The Orioles have grown tired of watching the opposition produce big innings, as the Rays did tonight by scoring four runs in the fourth and four in the fifth.

"Jealous? Yeah," Showalter said. "We'd like to do that, we're capable of doing that. But just because they're doing it doesn't remind me of what we're capable of. You go through periods like we are in and they'll be the first to tell you it's been extended. We just haven't been able to string offense together for a long period of time."

The strikeouts keep mounting. The Orioles fanned 14 times tonight.

At least the Red Sox also lost, keeping them two games behind the Orioles.

"Everybody knows the games are dwindling," Showalter said. "We're going to have to get hot in order to get in this thing.

"I know that mindset is normal human behavior. When you know something is needed, you're trying to deliver it and that's sometimes the hardest environment to deliver it in."

The Orioles need to start delivering right now.

"That's the beauty of this game is, how do you get out of this funk?" said Adam Jones. "The way you do it is you collectively come together and go out there and beat the crap out of somebody else instead of getting your tails handed to you."