O's lose at Seattle, come up short in bid to win five straight series

Well, that could have gone better. Adam Jones again had some tough defensive plays that he failed to make. Wei-Yin Chen lasted just four innings. The Orioles' offense failed to score over the first five innings against Aaron Harang, who entered with an ERA of 11.37. Seattle beat the Orioles 8-3 tonight to take the series finale and snap the O's streak of four straight series wins. They were looking to win five consecutive series for the first time since 1999. Jones could not haul in Kendrys Morales' sinking liner to end the last of the first and the Mariners went on to take a 1-0 lead. They then added two in the second in an inning that featured a Jesus Montero triple off Jones' glove in deep center. Chen's four-inning outing tied his four-inning start last July 8 at the Los Angeles Angels for the shortest of his career. He gave up eight hits and five runs, throwing 93 pitches. Chen, who entered this outing with an ERA of 2.53, four straight quality starts and a 13-inning scoreless streak, is now 2-3 with an ERA of 3.50. Over the last four games, O's starters have pitched 20 1/3 innings and posted an ERA of 7.53. The game featured the big league debut of pitcher Zach Clark, in the majors for the first time after eight years in the minors. He pitched a scoreless fifth, but gave up three runs in the sixth. Manny Machado had another good night for the Orioles, going 2-for-4 with a double and a solo homer. He now has a 10-game hitting streak and is batting .419 (18-for-43) in that run with seven doubles, a triple, a homer, six RBIs and six multi-hit games. Machado now has six doubles over his last six games and 10 in the last 16. The 10-game streak is longest ever by an Oriole under the age of 21. Michael Morse hit a two-run homer and Morales drove in three for Seattle, which had lost nine of its last 10 games against the Orioles. The Orioles fall to 4-3 on this trip and 16-12 overall as they now head on to Los Angeles to begin a four-game series with the Angels Thursday night.