Is O's struggling offense a temporary issue?

The Orioles' inconsistent offense is in another down cycle. The Orioles had not scored - or even had an extra-base hit - in 26 consecutive innings until Manny Machado's two-run home run in the eighth inning on Saturday.

Machado's 50th career homer produced a 2-2 tie, but the O's quickly fell behind and lost 3-2 to Chicago.

So they've lost their last three games by scores of 2-0, 1-0 and 3-2. They've allowed six runs and lost all three games. Over their last four games, O's starters have pitched to an ERA of 1.73, yet they've lost three of the four games.

The Orioles began Saturday leading the majors with a .309 batting average with runners in scoring position. Yet they are 0-for-16 with RISP the past four games. Right there is a big reason the club isn't scoring much. They are simply failing in recent days to get the clutch hit.

While the O's were able to avoid being shut out in three consecutive games, they have just 12 hits and a team batting average of .135 in those games against Texas and Chicago.

Several players are scuffing to varying degrees. Adam Jones is 4-for-30 his past eight games and without a homer his last 13 games. Matt Wieters is 0-for-15 over four games and 4-for-36 his past 10. Chris Parmelee is in a 2-for-21 slide and Ryan Flaherty, optioned to Triple-A Saturday, is 3-for-19.

The Orioles averaged 5.6 runs per game in April, 3.3 in May, 5.3 in June and are at 1.5 in four games this month.

So, yeah, inconsistent.

Some of the same issues do surface from time to time. They rely too heavily on the home run ball, they are often not a strong team in situational hitting and they don't work on elevating starter pitch counts too well in many games.

But this, too, shall pass. I don't see them going too much longer without getting some offense. The last few games have been brutal. The Oriole surged into first place, but now they are two games out again.

No one said it would be easy.

Jones has been scuffing since he missed those games recently with a shoulder injury and Wieters' falloff in recent games has hurt the middle of the order. For a while, there the Orioles were getting solid production from the corner outfield group, but that has slowed, too.

I'm sure the Orioles' hope is that Kevin Gausman helps solidify the rotation, the bullpen continues to be solid and Jonathan Schoop returns with a hot bat to bolster the offense today.

The Orioles have looked bad here the last few days. Is this temporary?