O's lose late lead, streak reaches seven (Grenier agrees)

On a steamy Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards, right-hander Andrew Cashner delivered a solid outing, another quality start and was in position for his first win at home with the Orioles.

But an offense that didn't score after the first inning and an O's bullpen that imploded conspired against him. The Los Angeles Angels scored five times in the eighth to win 6-2 in front of 38,838 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles (23-59) losing streak reaches seven. It's the club's seventh streak of five or more consecutive losses and fourth of seven games or more. The Orioles are 0-6 on a homestand that ends Sunday and have lost 17 of their last 18 at Camden Yards. Los Angeles (43-41) won for just the second time in eight games.

After Brad Brach pitched a scoreless seventh with a 2-1 lead, Los Angeles rallied against Mychal Givens and Tanner Scott. A very ugly half-inning included three walks (one intentional), a wild pitch, an infield hit, a double play chance not turned and a two-run single. Third baseman Tim Beckham touched third on a bases-loaded grounder but his throw across the diamond pulled Chris Davis off first base. That came with one out and the score tied 2-2 and the Angels went on to a big inning and a victory.

Cashner provided the Orioles with a quality start for the fourth time in his past five outings. Over six innings he gave up four hits and one run, with two walks and four strikeouts. He threw 105 pitches, 66 for strikes.

Cashner retired the first six batters today on 28 pitches through two innings. Then he stranded Ian Kinsler at second after his leadoff double in the top of the third. A nice play in the hole by shortstop Manny Machado helped his cause.

His 2-0 lead was trimmed to 2-1 in the Los Angeles fourth. Justin Upton doubled with one out and scored on an Andrelton Simmons' two-out single to left.

Cashner faced his biggest jam in the fifth and escaped it, stranding the bases loaded. He issued a leadoff walk and a one out bloop single, and later a two-out walk. He fell behind Upton 3-0 in the count, battled back to 3-2 and then struck him out when Upton chased a slider off the outside corner.

Cashner improves to 3-8 with an ERA of 4.48 and the Orioles are now 5-11 in his 16 starts. His ERA is 3.21 his past five starts. Before today Cashner was 0-5 with a 5.12 ERA in eight starts at Oriole Park.

Back in the home first the Orioles provided him a 2-0 lead. Beckham and Adam Jones led off with singles. Machado then singled to left to score Beckham. On the play left fielder Upton booted the grounder and both runners advanced, with Jones going to third and Machado to second. Danny Valencia's sac fly to deep center made it a 2-0 lead.

Postgame quotes:

Cashner on having just two wins and none at home in nine starts: "To say I'm not frustrated, I'd be lying, but for me, wins and losses are out of my control. So for me, it's just show up and give these guys a chance to win every day and compete. I think guys in the clubhouse know what I can do and wins and losses, I think they'll come."

Cashner on four quality starts his last five games: "Yeah, I had some things come along that I'm working on. I think the biggest thing is just the better fastball command. Finally getting my slider back and working with it. Making pitches earlier in the count."

Cashner on stranding bases loaded with no runs in fifth: "Especially I was kind of pitching around (Mike) Trout there, not really trying to give him anything to hit. With Upton behind, he had a double. I've had pretty good success against him, down and away and he hit that ball. I was just thinking a couple of those pitches early in the count were close. The biggest thing was that 3-2 slider. I didn't think he was looking for that. I thought that was the biggest part of the game."

Givens was hurt by the walks: "Creating walks is always going to be an issue for a pitcher. Facing a good hitter, try to put him away, got ahead of him but didn't get the job done. It's a hard game. You're going to have times you're going to struggle a lot and you're going to have times when you're going to do well. So, right now I'm just trying to get through it. It's a long season and we still haven't gotten to the All-Star break, so just trying to grind away."

Givens on if teams feels something will always go wrong at this point?: "I'm not a big negative person. The season hasn't been going a lot of our ways, but you've just got to keep grinding away. It doesn't really matter if it doesn't fall that way. You just have to bounce back tomorrow and try to figure something out and try to keep grinding. It's our job to do what we have to do in the bullpen, no matter if our offense is struggling or our offense is doing well. There's going to be times our offense is doing well and you still do bad in the bullpen. We just have to keep grinding and do our job in the bullpen and right now we're struggling, but at the same time we have to get our job done."

Grenier note: The Orioles have reached an agreement with their second draft pick, Oregon State shortstop Cadyn Grenier. His team just beat Arkansas to win the College World Series. Grenier was taken with the No. 37 overall selection in Competitive Balance Round A. The O's also have agreement in place with pitcher J.J. Montgomery of Central Florida, who was selected in round seven. The Orioles are very close to an agreement with pitcher Blaine Knight of Arkansas, taken in round three.

When the Orioles finalize and announce these deals, they will have signed every draft pick through the first 12 rounds. Montgomery will report to the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Orioles on Monday. Grenier and Knight are in the process of getting their physicals completed and that could happen as soon as Monday.