Few runs, no wins: O's bats stifled by Marlins pitchers

So how did it turn so quickly on offense for the Orioles?

Through Sunday they had just swept a three-game series from the Tampa Bay Rays. And while the offense was not putting up huge numbers, they were scoring just over five runs a game and were among the American League leaders in team OPS. But then the Miami Marlins came to town - a team that had not played in eight days - and the Orioles can't touch their pitching.

Sure, the Marlins threw two young pitchers with good arms at them in Pablo López and Elieser Hernandez. But in the second game of tonight's doubleheader the O's faced a Miami team going with a bullpen game. It didn't much change their poor results.

The Orioles had three hits in Tuesday's series-opening 4-0 loss, going 3-for-30 with 11 strikeouts. They went 3-for-23 in the twinbill opener today, losing 1-0. That is 6-for-53 (.113) heading into the second game tonight. Then they got held down again, although they finally scored in a 2-1 loss in which they were held to four hits.

That is 10 hits and one run in three games. The Orioles drew just six walks and struck out 25 times.

The Marlins can sweep the four-game series tomorrow as they try for three days' worth of excellent pitching in Baltimore.

Some hitters, such as DJ Stewart, look like they are pressing. Chris Davis is just 1-for-19 and looks nothing like he did in Florida in February and March. Austin Hays got two hits last night but has been chasing some pitches over the last four or five games. The bottom of the order is producing little and the entire order has produced little the last two nights.

Do the O's miss Rio Ruiz, who has three homers, that much? José Iglesias was back today as a DH.

While the offense is doing very little, the starting rotation has been doing a lot. Six straight O's starting pitchers have allowed two earned runs or fewer. They won the first three of those games, but have lost the past three. Alex Cobb and Asher Wojciechowski combined to allow three runs tonight and each lost their outings.

Fans are clamoring for prospect Ryan Mountcastle, but you do call him up at a time when they can't score? You don't want it to seem like you need him to save the day.

Through Sunday's game the O's were 5-3, and last week they faced Gerrit Cole, J.A. Happ, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. Those four top pitchers combined to pitch to a 5.89 ERA versus the Orioles and they gave up six homers in 18 1/3 innings. But Orioles hitters did little in this series versus much-less-heralded Marlins pitchers.

The search for runs goes on.