O's lay an egg in Toronto (Meredith to AAA)

During a season of poor performances, the Orioles may have actually raised the bar on poor on Friday night in a 5-0 loss at Toronto. They made physical and mental errors in the first inning, failed to score or record an extra-base hit and basically looked flat, disinterested and just plain bad. Here are more notes from the latest O's loss: Roster move: After the game, the Orioles officially recalled Chris Tillman from Norfolk to make Saturday's start. Reliever Cla Meredith was optioned to Triple-A. Meredith is 0-1, 5.40 on the year and gave up a homer that lost the game vs. Washington on Sunday and then yielded a three-run double on Thursday to Oakland's Kevin Kouzmanoff that gave the A's the lead. No runs again: The Orioles were shutout for the fourth time this season. They fall to 2-27 when scoring three runs or fewer. The Orioles went without an extra-base hit for the second straight game. In fact they have just one extra-base hit over the last three games and have gone 24 innings without one since Garrett Atkins hit a solo homer in the third inning Wednesday vs. Oakland. The Birds went 8 for 32 at bat in the loss and were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. He can't buy a run: Losing pitcher Kevin Millwood falls to 0-5, 3.89. He allowed five runs and six hits over six innings. He is now 2-6, 4.91 in 11 career starts vs. Toronto. He tied his season high in allowing five runs and gave up two homers or more for the fourth time. He threw a season-low 93 pitches and ended a streak of eight straight starts throwing 100 pitches or more. His ERA is at its highest point of the year at 3.89. Millwood has now lost five straight decisions, matching the longest skid of his career. He also lost five in a row from 9-8-03 to 4-11-04. The Orioles have scored just 30 runs during his 11 starts and just 17 runs when he has been in the game. The Orioles have been shutout four times on the year: 4-10: Toronto 3 at Orioles 0 4-29: New York 4 at Orioles 0 5-9: at Minnesota 6 Orioles 0 5-28: at Toronto 5 Orioles 0 The Orioles are 0-4 on the year vs. Toronto and have been outscored 20-8 in those games. The Orioles fall to 15-34 on the season and are a season-worst 19 games under the .500 mark. They are 0-1 on this six-game road trip. The Orioles are 6-20 this season on the road, 6-16 vs. the AL East and now 7-29 in their last 36 road contests dating to 2009. Adam Jones went 0 for 4, snapping his 13-game batting streak, which was the longest of his career and the longest by an Oriole on the year. Jones had hit .320 during that streak. Miguel Tejada went 3 for 4, making him 5 for 9 with two RBI over his last two games after an 0 for 11 stretch. On the farm: Frederick was rained out, but the three other starting pitchers Friday combined to give up just one run as Troy Patton pitched seven scoreless for Norfolk, Chorye Spoone seven innings of one-run ball for Bowie while Nate Moreau did not allow a run over six for Delmarva. The three combined: 20IP, 7H, 1R-ER, 3BB, 19K..........0.45 ERA. Norfolk beat Pawtucket 3-0 as Patton and Dennis Sarfate teamed on a four-hitter. Brandon Snyder went 3 for 4 and is batting .302 over his last 17 games. Josh Bell was 2 for 3 and he is 11 for 25 over his last seven games. Bowie whipped Richmond 10-1 as Joel Guzman went 2 for 4 with two doubles and 5 RBI. Spoone has pitched to an ERA of 2.25 over his last four starts and the Baysox get back to .500 at 24-24 and have won seven of their past ten games. Frederick was rained out at Lynchburg and plays a doubleheader there Saturday beginning at 4:35 p.m. Delmarva blanked Lakewood 2-0 as Brian Conley knocked in both runs to support Moreau. The Shorebirds improved to 21-28 overall and 8-14 at home.