O's fall 5-2 to Houston as Astros avoid the sweep

It is hard to sweep any team and the Orioles could not pull that off for the second series in a row. Trailing by three runs after one inning, they never caught up today in a 5-2 loss to Houston. The season's second sellout of 45,944 looked on during a beautiful afternoon at Camden Yards. Chris Tillman gave up a three-run homer to Jason Castro in the top of the first and needed 32 pitches to get through that inning. He walked the first two Astros he faced ahead of Castro's fifth homer. But Tillman kept Houston off the board after that through five innings. He gave up four hits with five walks and three strikeouts. That is one shy of his career high for walks. Tillman threw 105 pitches and is now 3-2 with an ERA of 3.97. His outing kept a streak alive where Orioles starting pitchers have allowed three earned runs or fewer for 13 consecutive games. The starters have given up 27 earned runs over 76 innings in the stretch for an ERA of 3.20. The team is 10-3 in that time. Houston right-hander Jarred Cosart had been pitching well and got the win today, allowing two runs and eight hits over six innings. He has an ERA of 2.10 over his past four starts. Adam Jones' two-run single in the third was the Orioles' only scoring today. For Jones those were career RBIs 500 and 501. The Birds stranded runners on second and third with one out in the fifth when the score was 3-2 Houston. Chris Davis returned to the lineup today and went 2-for-4 with a single and double. Nick Markakis went 1-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. Marc Krauss hit a two-run homer off T.J. McFarland in the seventh to make it a 5-2 lead for Houston, which had lost nine of its last 11 games and is now 12-26. The Orioles were trying for consecutive three-game sweeps for the first time since April 22-May 1, 2005. The O's five-game win streak, which was the longest current one in the majors, ends today. Now 20-15, the Orioles will host Detroit for three games starting Monday night when Bud Norris (2-2, 3.82 ERA) pitches against Rick Porcello (5-1, 3.49 ERA).