Losing streaks continue for O's as rally falls short (with quotes)

One pitch from Alex Cobb today and the Marlins had a runner in scoring position. Four pitches and they had a run.

Any margin seems daunting for a team that's been operating on a dead engine. The Orioles weren't cooked, but the broiler was back on.

No opponent seems capable of pulling the Orioles out of harm's way. They tried to rally against former teammate Wei-Yin Chen and the Marlins bullpen, but came up short in a 5-4 loss before an announced crowd of 23,948 at Camden Yards.

J.T. Realmuto homered twice off Cobb and the losing streak grew to nine games, longest since July 2011. The Orioles have dropped 16 of 18 games and are 19-50, matching the 1988 team's record at this point in the season.

The last 11 home games have ended in defeat, tying the club record set in 2007, and the Marlins will go for the sweep on Sunday.

Pinch-hitter Corban Joseph drew a leadoff walk in the ninth against Drew Steckenrider, but Adam Jones grounded into a 4-3 double play.

Jonathan Schoop homered in the seventh inning, the 18th straight solo shot for the Orioles. Their last multi-run homer came from Pedro Álvarez on May 19.

Three straight two-out singles off reliever Tayron Guerrero in the seventh, the last by Danny Valencia, cut the lead to 5-4. Jones collected his third hit and Manny Machado his second. All three players went to the opposite field.

They couldn't keep the team from going in the wrong direction.

The Orioles have been outscored 65-35 in the first inning after Derek Dietrich led off with a double and came home on Realmuto's single on a ground ball that scooted through the left side of the infield. JT Riddle led off the second with a double, again on Cobb's first pitch, and he scored on consecutive ground balls for a 2-0 lead.

A run produced on an out. It wasn't abolished in the last collective bargaining agreement.

Realmuto clubbed a two-run homer in the third for a 4-0 lead before the Orioles scored twice in the bottom half on Machado's single. Realmuto led off the sixth with another shot to center field.

The Orioles strung together three consecutive hits with two outs in the third, including Jones' double that moved Austin Wynns to third base. It counted as an outburst.

Chen gave up four hits in the inning, but he stranded two runners when Trey Mancini bounced out. Mancini is 4-for-49 with runners in scoring position, his ground ball to short against reliever Brad Ziegler stranding two more in the seventh.

In his return to Camden Yards after four seasons with the Orioles, Chen allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings for his second quality start in 10 outings. He visited the home side yesterday after arriving at the ballpark.

"I got to see his kids yesterday," said manager Buck Showalter. "The highlight of the day was him coming over and a nice hug. I told him to stay away and not get sick. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have."

Chen proved to be a bargain in Baltimore and, so far, a mistake in Miami due to an elbow injury. He was 46-32 with a 3.72 ERA for the Orioles before signing a five-year, $80 million deal with the Marlins.

"Wei-Yin played a big part," Showalter said. "It was a great sign by Dan (Duquette) and the organization. This guy won a lot of games for us, pitched well, was part of a lot of things that changed here. I'm real proud of how good a job the organization did making his path easy. How quickly he fit in. Everybody embraced him.

"All the things that were easy to like about him. He's athletic, competitive guy, wanted to make his mark here for his country, so to speak, and there was a lot of pressure on him. There weren't many better free agent signings you could make a case for for the money and the return. Just a real pleasure to manage.

"He got to a point where he was comfortable with us seeing him mad. He was comfortable in showing truly what he was feeling. You all know how guarded and measured he was with what they said. What really hit me yesterday and brought a smile to my face was listening to him talk to me in English. You probably talked to him, too. I don't know if he used an interpreter for you all, but he doesn't need one much. He's pretty good.

"The time he spent here and everything, he's got real fond memories of his time here. Worked out real well for him, while he was here and after he left."

Cobb allowed five runs and seven hits in seven innings. His record fell to 2-9 with a 7.14 ERA. He's followed back-to-back quality starts by allowing 14 runs and 18 hits in 10 2/3 innings in his last two outings.

The Orioles haven't scored more than four runs since June 2. Cobb's early failings today were bound to hurt him.

Cooked again.

Showalter on offense perking up and raising hopes: "Yeah, we had a shot. The fourth inning on, we pitched real well. Everybody. I thought that was an impressive finish of his outing with Alex. He struggled a little bit early with his fastball command, but he gave us a good chance. A lot of guys pull the dirt around them there, but he battled his way through seven innings. That part of it was pretty impressive. But the big hit just eluded us again.

"Tough twilight light with some guys throwing real hard and guys fought some balls off. Had some stick your nose in the plate at-bats and just couldn't get that one knock. But pitching, Alex and Brad (Brach) and Mychal (Givens) gave us a chance there to get back in it."

On stringing together two-out hits encouraging: "I hope so, yeah. I think it's more the approach than how hard the ball's necessarily hit. Manny was out here in the heat hitting. I'm sure you all saw it. He took some BP. A couple other guys came out early. I really would like to see them get a return for what they're putting in.

"It's very frustrating for me for them to see them not getting back what they're putting into it, but at some point you'd think the game's going to let them up a little bit. But nobody's going to feel sorry for you. They step on your neck when you're down and we did the same to other clubs and we've got to figure out a way to get back in that mode, but we've just had a little trouble keeping the ball in the park."

On whether this was same Chen as before: "Yeah, I think as he's evolved, too. The secondary pitches have become ... I'm sure they and Donnie (Mattingly) are being careful getting back from some of the challenges he's had medically. That's kind of been the spot, 90-100.

"You're talking about the at-bats and stuff. The ball Jon hit out, he wasn't looking for the pump there. He's just trying to put a good swing on the ball and that's a product of it. I was talking to Trey about it today in my office. It's not a thing that one swing is going to get back. You've got to stay with the process and your approach and trust yourself. It's so easy not to trust yourself at this point."

On Schoop laying off some tough pitches: "That's been encouraging. That's so hard to do because you look up there and you see a batting average and you see hits equate to the batting average rising and there's a part of that where you say, 'Don't swing.' That takes a lot of discipline, takes a lot of mental toughness because you want to hit and you want to help the club, you want the reflection of how you're doing to reflect it. But sometimes you've have to hit bottom before you start figuring out ...

"Sometimes how to get better is not by trying to do as much. That's a hard equation to stay true to."

On Joseph's at-bat, a walk with count full: "That's the type of at-bats that you need in that situation, in just about any situation. Just refuse to get beat and win the battles, which is what he did."

On what's holding back Cobb: "I talk to Alex a lot. I wanted him to finish that seventh inning. Normally, you'd probably think about taking him out there, that last hitter or two. I wasn't going to let him face the catcher again. It'll probably get some eye rolls to say that he's close, but changeup is there, and if it's not always there, but the curveball, I think it's been pretty crisp the last three or four outings. It's just the fastball command's that last missing piece.

"I think we've all seen him be so good for so long, we know what it looks like. It's another one where you see a statistic of whatever you want to look at, ERA or whatever. Yeah, it's reflective, but I don't think with him it paints the whole case."

On when it's reflective of Cobb, Cashner or whomever: "It always is. They know that. That's the world we live in. We live in an analytical world, but when you're in the arena you know there's more to that picture than just that, but that's certainly the one that when seasons are over or even during the season it's what everybody looks at and rightfully so."