Jonathan Schoop and Yovani Gallardo on the series loss to Toronto

It was a series where the Orioles' much-maligned starting rotation gave up just nine runs, but their hitters scored just nine. The Orioles lost 5-3 to the Blue Jays tonight, scoring just one run until Jonathan Schoop's two-run homer with two outs in the ninth.

Over three games the Orioles scored nine runs on 19 hits and went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Their grip on first place in the division has slipped away to a four-game deficit and now they try to hold onto the second American League wild card spot. They are now tied with Detroit for that spot.

Time to figure out a way to regroup and rebound from this series loss with 29 games to go.

"It's tough because we are chasing them and we lost two out of three," Schoop said. "But we've just got to learn from it, get a good off day tomorrow and come back stronger than we were. We've got September starting and we have to compete, play hard and try to win as many games as possible."

Toronto right-hander Aaron Sanchez got the win, improving to 13-2 with a 2.88 ERA. The Orioles got just five hits and one unearned run off him over six innings. He threw a career-high 112 pitches and has won 12 of his last 13 decisions.

"His fastball has sink to it, late sink to it," Schoop said. "He commanded really well today and he's got a good curveball and changeup. All season long he has been throwing good. He commanded his fastball real good today."

The O's offense scored one run and three runs in the two losses in the series. They got three straight quality starts from Wade Miley, Ubaldo Jimenez and Yovani Gallardo tonight, but still lost the series. That has to sting a bit. The pitching was there, the bats were not.

"Of course," Schoop said. "But even when you lose, you have to find some positives (like the starting pitching). Positives get your better motivated for the next game than the negative."

Gallardo gave up two homers in the first inning and was surprised the two-run shot that Russell Martin hit to right field carried out. But he regrouped after that first inning to pitch five more scoreless frames and record a quality start. Jose Bautista gave Toronto a 1-0 lead when he homered on the game's first pitch. Martin made it 3-0 four batters later.

"You know the first pitch of the game, they took advantage of it," Gallardo said. "Obviously, probably location on that. First-pitch fastball. The one to Russell Martin, I didn't think he got it that good to go out of the ballpark. Unfortunately it went out. Just one of those things that is frustrating. It is not easy for these guys to come from behind when you give up three in the first inning. But after that just was able to put up zeroes and make pitches whenever I had to. Got some groundballs and got out of some tough jams."

The series was lost and now the Orioles try to pick up the pieces on the season.

"It's tough," Gallardo said. "You are always trying to win the series. We knew this would be big and important. They are leading the division and that is our ultimate goal, to be in that spot. But we've got a whole other month ahead of us. All we can do is get ready for Friday and start up fresh. When you play your division the last month you can gain a lot of ground or lose a lot of ground. It's big from here on out. We just have to figure out a way to get it done."

Schoop tonight produced his 35th multi-hit game, going 3-for-5. With his homer in the ninth, the Orioles tied the MLB record with 55 home runs for the month of August, according to ESPN Stats and Info.