Chris Tillman suffers his seventh loss as Rays get series finale

It might have come down to the fifth inning today. The Tampa Bay Rays got runs out of their two-out rally, while the Orioles got none. Tampa Bay scored four times in the inning to break a 2-2 tie and beat the Orioles 9-5 this afternoon in front of 36,945 sun-splashed fans at Camden Yards.

The Orioles lost the series, two games to one, and fall to 23-26 for the season. They produced a walk-off win Friday night, but lost the next two days.

This ends a stretch where the Orioles played 17 of the last 20 games at home, and they went 10-10.

Chris Tillman struck out the first two batters to start the fifth and, at that point, had fanned four in a row. But then he walked Evan Longoria and David DeJesus reached on an infield single. An RBI single by Logan Forsythe gave the Rays a 3-2 lead and Steve Souza Jr. then provided the dagger. He hit a three-run homer on a 3-2 pitch for a 6-2 lead.

Souza homered in all three games of this series and went 5-for-12 this weekend with three homers and five RBIs.

The Rays came into today averaging just 2.1 runs per game in going 3-5 against the Orioles this year, and had scored two runs or less in six of the first eight games between the teams. Then they got three on one swing.

In the last of the fifth, Manny Machado singled with one out against Jake Odorizzi, who then walked back-to-back hitters to load the bases with two outs. But Steve Pearce then offered at the first pitch and grounded out to third to end the bases-loaded rally.

Earlier, Delmon Young hit solo homers for the Orioles on the first pitch he saw in the first and third innings. He began today with no homers in 115 at-bat, then came up with his fourth career multi-homer game and first since Aug. 3, 2011 while with Minnesota. Young is now 4-for-4 with three career homers versus Odorizzi.

Tillman was knocked out during the fifth inning. He went 4 2/3 innings, allowing nine hits and six runs (five earned). He is now 2-7 with an ERA of 5.94.

Last year, the Orioles went 24-10 in Tillman's starts and this year they are 3-7. O's fans are hoping Tillman can turn around his 2015 season as he did last year when he had an ERA of 5.20 on June 5 and ended at 3.34.

Tillman has one more loss at 2-7 then he had all of last year when he went 13-6 and he matches his loss total from his 2013 loss total when he went 16-7.

Down 7-2 after David DeJesus homered in the top of the seventh off Oliver Drake, the O's cut that to 7-4 when Manny Machado hit a two-run shot off Odorizzi. It was Machado's seventh homer. Machado added a second homer, with a solo shot to right in the ninth, for his fourth career multi-homer game and second this year. He also did that April 23 at Toronto.

The last time two O's had multi-homer games in the same game, it was Chris Davis and Machado on Sept. 26, 2012 against Toronto.

But the Orioles came up short to fall to 15-12 at home, 15-17 against the American League East and end May with a 13-16 record for the month.

The Orioles begin a seven-game road trip at Houston tomorrow night when Ubaldo Jimenez (3-3, 3.14 ERA) faces left-hander Brett Oberholtzer (0-0, 3.00 ERA).