Chris Tillman allows seven runs as O's are swept (quotes added)

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Pitching six days after his best start of the 2018 season, Chris Tillman tonight had his worst.

The Los Angeles Angels scored five runs off the right-hander in the last of the first and knocked him out two batters into the second inning as they routed the Orioles 12-3 at Angel Stadium.

Albert Pujols went 1-for-4 tonight with a two-run double in the second and he ended the night at 2,999 hits. His chase to become the 32nd player in major league history to get 3,000 hits will resume Friday night at Seattle.

Tillman got hit hard as he allowed seven hits and seven runs in one inning plus two batters. He walked one and fanned no one, throwing 47 pitches, 27 for strikes. His fastball tonight averaged 88.4 mph as the Angels went 7-for-10 against him with three doubles and a triple.

The outing was the shortest of the year for Tillman, but not for his career. He went just 2/3 of an inning on July 16, 2012 at Minnesota. The shortest start by an Oriole this year was 2/3 of an inning by Mike Wright Jr. on April 8 at New York.

Tillman falls to 1-5 with an ERA of 9.24 and has allowed four runs or more in five of his six starts. The Angels hit five balls 100 mph or more tonight. They led 8-0 after the second inning and 12-0 after the fourth.

Tillman's outing comes after his last start where he gave up just one hit and no runs over seven innings to Detroit. That was Friday at Camden Yards.

While the Orioles pitchers were giving up 12 runs through the fourth, Orioles batters were also being no-hit through five innings by Angels right-hander Jaime Barria. But that ended when Trey Mancini singled with one out in the sixth. The Orioles went on to score twice that inning on RBI singles by Manny Machado and Chris Davis. Machado singled in a run in the eighth for a two-RBI night.

The Angels had lost nine of their last 11 home games coming into this series but they sweep the Orioles, who fall to 8-23.

The Orioles have lost nine in a row on the road, where they are 3-13. They have been swept three straight in road series at Houston, Boston, Detroit and now at Anaheim.

The Angels began this year going 13-3, but then went 3-9. They got well the last three nights versus the last-place Orioles. The Orioles have lost nine of 11, 15 of 18 and 17 of their past 21 games.

Orioles pitching has allowed 87 runs in the last 14 games and they allowed 22 runs over the past two nights. They've allowed nine runs or more seven times this year.

The 2017 Orioles had a seven-game win streak late last August to get to a record of 68-65. Since then, the Orioles have gone 15-45 over the last 60 games.

The Orioles still have just one two-game winning streak this year. They came to Anaheim looking to get a road trip off to a good start, but they got swept and now it's on to Oakland for a three-game weekend series.

Postgame quotes:

Tillman on possibly losing his rotation spot: "Can't think about it. 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. So move on and get better for the next one and come out and win a ballgame."

Tillman on how the team in past years could rely heavily on him but not now: "It is not easy. Everyone likes to win in this clubhouse. It's no secret. I think this team is very capable of winning a lot of ballgames. We've got a really good team in there, we've just got to play better all the way around. I've got to do my part much better. I didn't give us much of a chance tonight. If I am able to throw up a couple of zeros there and we start hitting the ball around the park, it would have been a much different story. Just got to put up some zeros."

Adam Jones on falling behind big early in the game: "It's tough for anybody to play when they're behind. It changes a lot of the dynamics of the offense, but we still have to go up there and put up good at-bats. Playing behind is not easy but it's not an excuse for our woes."

Manager Buck Showalte on whether Tillman will lose his spot in the rotation: "You know what? Obviously, this is a competitive place for all of us. You have to be good at what you do and we all know what's at stake. Nobody knows that more than Chris. But I'm certainly not going to have Chris read about his manager (saying anything about that). It's tough because you're pulling hard for him like all your pitchers because you know what he's capable of and how much it means to him. We're in that (area) where you can almost care too much. Chris is just not wired like that."