O's bats silent again in 6-0 loss to Nats (quotes added)

When a pitcher on a roll met struggling hitters today, maybe we should have known what to expect. Not much changed as Washington lefty Gio Gonzalez continued his strong season and pitched his team to a 6-0 victory over the Orioles this afternoon in front of 36,139 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles have scored just six runs their last four games and 21 in the last nine. They have scored three or fewer runs in nine of their past 10 games. Today they were shut out for the second time in nine games.

Baltimore falls to 17-37 and the Orioles have lost 23 of their last 34 games. The Orioles had gone 7-4 in their previous 11 home games but are now 10-14 at Camden Yards. The Orioles are 1-19 when they fail to homer.

The Nationals improved their record to 30-22 overall and to 18-8 on the road. They won for the sixth time in seven games and 13th in their last 18.

After Orioles right-hander Alex Cobb got the first six outs on 24 pitches, the Nationals grabbed the lead in the top of the third. Third baseman Anthony Rendon hit a three-run homer into the left field corner to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead. With two outs and none on, Trea Turner singled and Bryce Harper walked. Then Rendon hit No. 6 on a 1-1 fastball to break the 0-0 tie. Cobb needed 42 pitches to eventually get through that inning and hold the deficit to 3-0.

The Orioles missed a scoring chance in the home second against Gonzalez. Danny Valencia led off with a single to center, but was erased on Trey Mancini's 6-4-3 double play. After Gonzalez issued a pair of two-out walks, No. 9 hitter Andrew Susac was called out looking at a third strike.

Three innings later, Susac batted with two outs and none on and drilled a 2-2 changeup to deep right. Harper leaped above the fencing covering where the grounds crew sits to make the catch, rob Susac of a homer and keep the Orioles off the board.

An inning later, Adam Jones doubled to right with one out for the Orioles' fourth hit, but was stranded there as Gonzalez had a shutout through six on 86 pitches.

Gonzalez finished with 7 2/3 scoreless innings on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts. He improved to 6-2 with an ERA of 2.10 after a 114-pitch outing. Shawn Kelley kept the shutout intact and stranded two, getting Manny Machado on a popout in the O's eighth.

Cobb went a season-high seven innings today and kept Washington off the board both before and after that third inning. While he needed 42 pitches in the third, he threw just 59 in his other six innings. For the game, he allowed five hits and three runs with three walks and strikeouts. He falls to 1-7 with an ERA of 6.80 and the Orioles are 1-8 over his nine starts.

In 17 career interleague starts, Cobb is 9-5 with a 2.59 ERA and 14 quality starts.

In the second game of this series on Tuesday night, right-hander Dylan Bundy (3-6, 4.45 ERA) faces ex-Orioles right-hander Jeremy Hellickson (1-0, 2.13 ERA) at 7:05 p.m.

Postgame quotes:

Manager Buck Showalter on Cobb's outing: "Good, huh? I thought he was good. One pitch, so to speak. He will probably lament a walk there in that inning, but Alex gave us a great chance to win. That was fun to watch for him. That's more like the guy we know is capable of pitching like that. We'll take that type of outing against a good club any day. We're just not scoring any runs. He had a feel for his changeup today, got some outs there. That's one of the ingredients he's capable of bringing that he hasn't had every time. When he's got three of them, he will have a solid outing like he had today."

Showalter when asked if more credit goes to Gonzalez or whether it's about O's offense struggling: "Well, I think you're being nice when you say a little (struggling). It's been a challenge for us and I'm gonna always give credit to them. He certainly has ... he's got an ERA under 3.00 and he's having a solid year. So to answer your original question, I'll give him credit, but we all know it's a little bit more than that. We've had some success against good pitchers before, but there's a good situation for other pitchers right now. They're really good and we're not swinging the bats well - that's a bad combination."

Showalter on whether Memorial Day is a benchmark: "I've never heard that, but I'm sure it's something. I don't listen to a lot of that stuff that says, 'Hey, by this day it's 100 percent exactly what this is going to be.' There's too much of the human element here. We're probably getting close to a third of the way. Somewhere around here. Today? So that's probably what they base it on. It's probably around there. So, no, I'm always evaluating kind of where we are and where we have the potential to head. Just gotta get better. I think our guys know that. It's very frustrating for them right now and I'm sure for everybody, including the fans."

Cobb on the frustration of pitching well but getting no runs: "We want to win ballgames, not on a personal level. It's just more the team overall. We're trying to win games out here every night. That's not what's happening. There's more that we can do as pitchers in picking up the offense when they have tough nights. Collectively as a team, we're clicking on different cylinders. I'm really going to have to tip my hat to Rendon right there. I went back and even looked at the pitch. It was a quality pitch."

Cobb on whether a lack of offense puts more pressure on a pitcher to keep one swing from beating him: "No, this game is such a mental grind that you have to do one pitch at a time, whether you're on offense or you're pitching or you're playing defense. Once I gave up that home run and the team's trailing by three, I can't get those three runs off the board. My next job is to get as many outs as I can and keep more runs from scoring and keep the team in it. As a pitcher you're always having different mindsets to have like that out there. Once you start worrying about things you can't control, you're going to be in a lot of trouble because this game keeps you busy enough with things that you need to do."

Joey Rickard on Gonzalez and O's struggles on offense: "He just mixed up his pitches. Seems like he had the pitch to get back in the count and he kept us off-balance. Hats off to him. We just have to continue to have each other's back and come through. We know what this lineup is capable of so we just have to stay aggressive."