Gausman on his outing, Davis on the offense

Kevin Gausman walked a season-high four batters today, and gave up five runs and seven hits over five innings in a 5-2 loss to Tampa Bay.

He had pitched to an ERA of 0.95 over his three previous starts. But he didn't blame his struggles today on his recent schedule, one where he was sent back to the minors since his last start.

"It was definitely weird, but I would never make an excuse for anything like that," Gausman said. "I felt good physically on the mound, so that's really all you can ask for.

"Four walks, that is putting guys on base. Felt like a lot of them happened with two outs. That is huge and not only because it kind of gets you out of whack but gets your pitch count up.

"You are not going to be your sharpest every time out. I really had to grind through the entire start today from the first inning. I just didn't have my stuff."

Gausman had issued four walks by the fourth inning and threw 95 pitches for the day, just 50 for strikes. He also hit a batter and threw a wild pitch.

"I didn't have my best fastball and my best split. So I went to my circle change and threw some good sliders today, but overall my stuff just wasn't very good. More than anything, I just felt kind of out of whack," he said.

Can he learn from this?

"Yeah, definitely," he said. "I've heard guys say at this level you are going to make 35 starts a year and maybe five you are going to have your best stuff. That is really where you learn how to grind through starts. If I get through six innings today with three runs, I would have been happy, especially with the way my stuff was. It just wasn't very good."

Gausman was asked if being optioned to the minors threw his rhythm off.

"I've been up and down," he said. "I've done relief, start, everything you can imagine. I don't think that really had anything to do with it. I would have liked to stay on my routine, but we had a doubleheader today. Just kind of the way the cards were dealt."

Gausman said he didn't have his best fastball today. Was his velocity off, did he struggle with commanding pitches or both?

"Little bit of both," he said. "Tried to go in on a guy and I threw it outside, way outside. Mechanically, I just felt a little out of whack. Just everything from the get go. I fell down on the mound. Probably the first time I fell down since I can't remember when.

"That was just a key for me to try and keep my weight back. (Pitching coach) Dave Wallace noticed it also. So one of those things, go back to the drawing board and those between starts sessions are huge. Just work on that in my bullpen sessions."

Meanwhile, the Orioles were held to one run over 5 2/3 innings by Rays starter Alex Colome. He was making just his fourth major league start and I asked Chris Davis about the challenge of facing a pitcher for the first time.

"You just have to go off the information you have and get after him," Davis said. "You have to trust your scouting reports. That is just part of the game. He mixed his pitches up. Fastball to both sides of the plate. Good changeup."

The Orioles offense once again has been slowed and without some late-inning comebacks in the White Sox series, it might be looking worse than that. Any concern?

"I don't think so," Davis said. "You have to look at the at-bats, if we are going up there, seeing three pitches and sitting down or not having productive at-bats. We still have guys swinging the bats well. We've just got to get a little bit better at getting runners in with scoring position. That would take some pressure off our pitching staff."