In a new twist, the Orioles played poorly and lost (plus other notes)

Kevin Gausman gave up two homers. Darren O'Day gave up one. The Orioles made three errors and allowed two unearned runs. The Orioles lost. Yeah, it was not their best night. Should we be concerned? Only if... oh never mind. Buck Showalter gave some players the night off and they lost. Are the two related? Maybe, but I repeat my point. This team needs to rest up for the postseason. Playing guys every day to push for a goal of home-field advantage is not smart. Time to gear up to try to get 11 wins come Oct. 2 and everything should be with that goal in mind right now. It's OK to not get home-field everyone. Only one team will. They are going to be fine. More notes on the Orioles: * Gausman gave up two homers last night, which came back-to-back in the fourth inning. Gausman had allowed two homers in just one of his 18 starts all year until Friday night. He had given up five all season in 103 1/3 innings and none over his previous four starts. * The Orioles had allowed just 11 runs total in going 6-1 on this homestand. The O's lost 3-2 on Saturday to New York and that was the most they allowed in any game until last night's 5-3 loss in 10 innings to Boston. * Lucky the Orioles didn't add one more run or their record of being 32-1 since July 19 when scoring four or more runs would be 32-2. * Alejandro De Aza is batting .352 as an Oriole. Over his last nine games, he has nine extra-base hits, going 14-for-38 (.368) with four doubles, three triples and two homers. * The Orioles hit just nine triples as a team in their first 141 games. Now they have five in their last 12 games. * Andrew Miller lowered his ERA as an Oriole to 0.98 in 20 games with a scoreless inning Friday. In 18 1/3 innings, Miller has allowed just seven hits and two runs with three walks and 31 strikeouts. Over his last six games and 5 2/3 innings, he has allowed no hits or runs with no walks and 14 strikeouts. So he has gotten 14 of his last 17 outs via a strikeout.