Machado on his error, O'Day on Brock Holt's home run (plus other clubhouse quotes)

Right before Boston's Brock Holt hit a tiebreaking three-run homer off Darren O'Day tonight in the top of the eighth inning, the Orioles had a chance to record the third out of the inning.

Third baseman Manny Machado ranged to his left, but could not come up with a groundball off the bat of Allen Craig. He was charged with an error and Holt got to bat.

His homer off of O'Day broke the tie and led Boston to a 7-5 win in the series opener.

"Tough play," Machado said of that error. "I'm guarding the line and just trying to make an out. You know how it goes after an error, here comes a big shot. It happened, but we try to battle and keep grinding. It's part of the game and we have to keep our heads up and go get them tomorrow."

It has been a tough stretch for the Orioles. Their longest losing streak last year was four games and this streak has now reached five.

"Got to play baseball," Machado said. "You know there are 162 games. You still have to get to know each other and keep playing the game. The more games we play, we'll get connected and we'll see where we are at later on down the road."

Late in the game the MASN cameras seemed to catch Machado moving a little carefully, but he said he is not injured.

"I'm good," he said. "Grinding it out there. Just controlling what I can and just have to go out and grind...This was a tough loss, five in a row. But we can start a five-game winning streak tomorrow and get us back on the path we need to be on."

O'Day was asked about the 1-2 pitch Holt hit for the homer.

"He hit a good pitch," he said. "Made that pitch many times and got a lot of outs with it. But he got up to it. Credit to him. I'll throw it again.

"We didn't do the little things tonight. Made a lot of small errors and our strength is paying attention to detail. We just didn't do it tonight. Both sides of the ball," O'Day said.

Before the error and home run, there was a two-out walk issued by Brian Matusz to Pablo Sandoval. It was the one batter he faced tonight and he didn't get him.

"Have to be able to throw the ball over the plate and give the fielders a chance," Matusz said. "That has been my problem this year, being able to throw strikes. Got to be able to throw strikes.

"The first pitch was a strike. It was right down the middle, wasn't even close. But ball four was a ball. Yeah, can't be nibbling like that. Have to be able to attack and throw strikes."

Then he left the game and had to watch the error and home run that followed as Boston moved ahead.

Tough to watch that?

"Yeah, absolutely," Matusz said. "You know our guys are grinding. We are going out there every day and working hard. We're battling. Sometimes it falls your way and sometimes it doesn't."

Starter Miguel Gonzalez went six innings tonight allowing eight hits and four runs. He said it was a battle out there and he was not on top of his game.

"It was," he said. "The first couple of innings I got away with some pitches. We had one bad inning, I had one inning. Also O'Day. It's going to happen, we just have to keep making pitches and give them a chance to win games."

While Gonzalez did snap a streak of eight straight starts of 5 1/3 or fewer innings by O's starting pitchers, the rotation has pitched the third fewest innings in the American League, putting more stress on the bullpen.

"Has to be tough for them," Gonzalez said. "They have to be ready mentally, mentally prepared. As starters, we have to do a better job. Minimize innings and two-out walks will bite you."

The Orioles' five-game losing streak is their longest since six in a row from Sept. 19-24, 2013. Boston is now 6-0 in series opening games while the Orioles are 1-5.