Cobb can't catch break and Orioles can't rally past Rays (updated)

This is Alex Cobb's pitching life with the Orioles.

Winless at home and trying to divert his eyes from the 13 losses attached to his record, Cobb retired the first eight batters tonight and faced the minimum through three innings. The split-changeup was working for him, but the Orioles couldn't give him a lead.

The Rays scored twice in the fourth on ground balls through a drawn-in infield and against the shift. More a case of bad luck than poor pitches. More of what Cobb has grown accustomed to in a season that keeps testing his patience.

Jonathan Schoop wrapped a two-run homer around the left field foul pole to tie the game in the fifth and continue his torrid stretch of hitting, but a towering fly ball that produced an automatic double in the top of the seventh and another well-placed ground ball put Cobb behind again and positioned him for another defeat.

Though credited with a quality start, Cobb couldn't retire a batter in the seventh and the Orioles lost to the inexplicable Rays 4-3 before an announced crowd of 19,025 at Camden Yards.

A 30th win continues to elude the Orioles, who are 29-74 overall, 17-35 at home, and 1-5 since the All-Star break and Manny Machado trade.

The Rays have a lot to learn about tanking. They're in third place and three games above .500 at 53-50.

Someone else probably was traded while in the congratulatory handshake line. The roster keeps undergoing more changes.

Chris Davis homered off Sergio Romo in the seventh, the ball traveling an estimated 434 feet according to Statcast, to reduce the lead to 4-3. He also doubled in the fifth and had two extra-base hits in a game for the first time this season.

Tonight's home run to center field was the longest hit by Davis in two years and it came on an 80.5 mph changeup.

Ji-Man Choi, who spent about two weeks in the Orioles organization in 2016, led off the top of the seventh with a double on a ball that deflected off a fan's hands and chest in the first row of seats in left field, and he scored on Adieny Hechavarria's RBI single to break a 2-2 tie.

Paul Fry replaced Cobb and induced a double play grounder from Daniel Robertson, but he hit Mallex Smith and walked Ryan Kiermaier, and Jhan Mariñez bounced a throw past Davis after fielding Matt Duffy's slow roller near the mound.

A fourth run charged to Cobb, though unearned, and the Orioles were headed toward another loss - and Cobb toward his 14th in 16 decisions while lowering his ERA to 6.08.

Schoop has homered in four straight games for the first time in his career, five since the break and seven this month. Davis was the last Oriole to string together four in a row in August 2016.

Drawing trade interest from multiple teams, Schoop has four straight multi-hit games and has hit safely in 19 of the last 20.

Tampa Bay "starter" Hunter Wood was replaced after 1 2/3 innings and with two runners on base after Trey Mancini's infield hit and Danny Valencia's walk. Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough walked Jace Peterson to load the bases and retired Caleb Joseph on a fly ball to left field.

Valencia singled with two outs in the fourth and raced to third on Peterson's bloop double to center field, but Joseph flied to center field.

Joseph stranded five runners in four innings, but he also threw out Smith trying to steal after a two-out walk in the third.

Kiermaier's leadoff double in the fourth inning was the first hit off Cobb and the only ball hit hard. Jake Bauer singled past Schoop, who had moved up near the infield grass, to score Kiermaier and he came home with two outs when Choi punched a broken-bat single through the spot vacated by shortstop Tim Beckham.

Beckham fielded Kiermaier's bouncer and stepped on second base to start a double play after the Rays put runners on the corners with one out in the fifth. And his leadoff walk in the fifth preceded Schoop's home run.

Mike Wright Jr. struck out two batters and stranded a runner in the eighth and has allowed only three runs in his last 18 innings while lowering his ERA to 4.58.

Note: The starting time for the Aug. 26 game against the Yankees at Camden Yards has been moved from 1:05 p.m. to 8:05 p.m. to accommodate ESPN's broadcast of "Sunday Night Baseball."

MASN won't carry the game, but it will air on the Orioles Radio Network.

Eutaw Street gates will open at 6 p.m., with the rest of the ballpark opening at 6:30 p.m. The postgame Kids Run the Bases promotion has been canceled.

Showalter on whether Cobb deserved better with all the ground balls: "Oh, yeah. Alex pitched pretty well. I know he'd like to have back some of the 0-2 counts. Something he's usually pretty good at. He gave up a couple hits 0-2 and had some 0-2 counts where he let them get back into it 3-2, but he had a good split early on and can't fault his outing. He carried us there into the seventh."

Showalter on Schoop: "You say things like that with track record and numbers, but sometimes that doesn't happen. I think people really underestimated how strong he really is mentally. He's as coachable a guy as you ever want to see and he's a great listener. You've got to be careful what you throw at him because he's going to put it into play. And some of that, Jon's such a pleaser and so many people try to help him through that. I remember the last conversation I had with him wasn't about anything mechanically or whatever. But he's been solid. He's really played well defensively, too, in a lot of different places. We've moved him around. You really like to see the ball coming out toward him."

Showalter on whether Mariñez got sped up on error: "Probably. He had a chance to really get a big out for us there and did everything right except that throw over there. Chris was heads-up and Caleb, we were able to get the out at the plate, but we would have rather gotten the out at first base, obviously. Paul came in and we got a big double play ball and I thought the hit by pitch kind of took the momentum away from him.

"Chris had three good at-bats tonight, hit the ball on the button three times. I thought Peterson really played well at third. I can't tell you how hard that play is. When a bat's flying by your head, a lot of people just bail and run. Just like we know about Jace, he stuck his nose in there and made a play."

Cobb on keeping focused when things keep going wrong: "I'm just trying to win. Maybe I should stop trying so hard. Maybe that'll help. I don't know. When you give up soft contact, runs score, it's hard to try to feel like you did the right thing, pitching to weak contract, because you get so angry and so frustrated with it. But you have to understand that you don't need to change anything out there. You just need to keep forcing it and hopefully it finds people. But it's been tough.

"I mean, finding every which way to lose a ballgame right now and try to, like I've been saying, take positives from the game. I felt better each time out, so just keep following that path and hopefully the tide will turn on it."

Davis on feeling better at the plate: "Yeah, I feel like I'm seeing the ball a lot better. I feel like I'm a lot calmer in the box. I haven't quite gotten the results I would have liked other than tonight, but I think the biggest thing for me is to try to take something positive away.

"Obviously, it's been a tough season for me, not only personally but for the team as well, and I want to do everything I can to finish the season strong and take some momentum into the offseason."