Losing streak reaches nine as O's fall to Miami (with quotes)

The Orioles were not held to three runs or less again today, but right-hander Alex Cobb didn't have the bounceback outing he wanted, either. It led to Miami beating the Orioles 5-4 at Oriole Park to take the first two games in this series.

The Orioles (19-50) have lost nine in a row - six by two runs or less - and 16 of their last 18 games. They have lost 11 in a row at home where they are 10-23. Miami (28-43) has won five of six and eight of its past 12 games.

The Orioles' 11 consecutive home losses ties a club record, set in 2007.

Cobb gave up nine runs in his previous start at Toronto to tie a career high. He allowed five today on seven hits over seven innings to fall to 2-9 with an ERA of 7.14. The Orioles are 2-10 in his 12 starts.

His seven innings tied his season high but he now leads the majors with nine losses.

The Marlins scored in each of the first three innings to take an early 4-2 lead at the end of three. They got leadoff doubles in the first and second and scored both to go ahead 2-0. Derek Dietrich led off the game with a double to center and scored one out later on J.T. Realmuto's single to center. An inning later it was JT Riddle, who hit a two-bagger and moved up on two grounders to make it 2-0 with J.B. Shuck getting the RBI.

Realmuto had a big day and hit the first of his two homers in the top of the third. A two-run shot scored Brian Anderson, who had walked, for a 4-0 lead. He hit a first-pitch fastball 404 feet to center,

The O's cut the deficit in half on Manny Machado's two-out, two-run single in the home third. Austin Wynns singled off Wei-Yin Chen with one out and moved to third on Adam Jones' double. Machado's single into right-center on a 2-0 slider scored both and he now has 52 RBIs.

Miami got one back in the sixth when Realmuto homered again. He hit No. 9 on a 3-1 fastball for the 5-2 lead. It's his fourth career multi-homer game and second of this year following one he produced on April 25 at the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Jonathan Schoop matched that longball with one of his own. He hit No. 7 in the Baltimore sixth for a 5-3 game. Schoop connected on a 3-1 fastball. He had produced just one homer and one RBI in the previous 17 games before today.

Schoop's homer was the Orioles 18th straight solo home run. They have not hit one with a man on base since Pedro Álvarez delivered a two-run shot on May 19 at Boston.

The Orioles pulled with a run at 5-4 in the seventh with three straight two-out singles off reliever Tayron Guerrero. The last by Danny Valencia scored the fourth run. But Brad Ziegler came on and got Trey Mancini on a hard-hit grounder up the middle to strand two runners and keep Miami in the lead. Mancini is now hitless in his past 20 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

The O's went 2-for-7 with RISP today after going 3-for-58 the last eight games. Jones had three of the Orioles' 11 hits for his 22nd multi-hit game and 11th game of three or more hits.

An Oriole from 2012-16, Chen beat his former team today to improve to 2-3 with a 5.91 ERA. He had allowed 10 runs over 10 1/3 his previous three starts, but was better this afternoon. Over six innings he gave up eight hits and three runs on 94 pitches.

In the series finale on Sunday, right-hander Dylan Bundy (4-7, 3.66 ERA) faces right-hander Trevor Richards (1-3, 4.41 ERA) at 1:05 p.m.

Postgame quotes:

Cobb on going seven and allowing five runs: "Yeah, it's a tough one. I actually felt, stuff-wise, it was pretty good. Just a few fastballs that I left over the middle of the plate that didn't come back that really ended up being the difference-maker. I have to build off of being able to go deep in that game, which was nice and the stuff being pretty good. So I've got to harness those two things and clean up the rest."

Cobb feels his fastball command was off today: "Yeah, I think the overall repeating of the delivery, which allows the fastball command to be there consistently game in and game out (was not there). The overall delivery just hasn't been crisp and clean. That is why the stuff is starting to come, but the fastball command is struggling right now. I've got to harness what was going good and clean up those poorly-executed fastballs."

Cobb on Realmuto's big day: "He's a good hitter. Think that, at least I know the second home run was really due in large part because I fell behind to him. Then it was a 3-1 count, maybe. I don't know about the first one. When you have a good hitter up there, you can't fall behind to those guys and then give them a cookie down the middle. They are going to do that with it. Yeah, it's frustrating that it was one guy. But it's more frustrating that I let him win the at-bats before he actually hit the home run."

Schoop on whether Chen was the pitcher he remembers: "Yes, a little bit. He would throw in, throw his changeup and curveball. I don't remember too much, but it was kind of the same."

Schoop on not doing more with 11 hits: "We had our chances and didn't come through. We have to keep working hard and hopefully end this losing streak tomorrow and keep going until the season is over."