O's notes on Harvey's struggles, one-run games and more

Before he made a start last week at Citi Field against the New York Mets, Orioles right-hander Matt Harvey was solid during his most recent three-start stretch. In those games - against the Yankees, Athletics and Red Sox - he went 2-1 with a 1.72 ERA, .193 batting average against and .608 opponent OPS.

I think Birdland would happily take that and run with it.

But Harvey had another early exit last night when he allowed a pair of three-run homers in the second inning in a 13-6 loss against Tampa Bay. He gave up six runs in 1 2/3 innings. Adding in that start versus the Mets, he's allowed 13 runs in his last six innings for an ERA of 19.50 in those two games.

His ERA has increased from 4.06 to 5.93 in two outings.

"I didn't really feel comfortable from the beginning," Harvey said in his postgame Zoom session. "Kind of got into some old habits mechanically and gave up some soft hits, and then obviously with runners on, I gave up two hard ones that cost us the game. I've got some work to do this week mechanically and kind of go back to square one and figure it out so this doesn't happen again."

Harvey gave up three homers in his first eight starts. Then he allowed two within a span of four batters in the second inning last night against the Rays.

Going back to Saturday night, no O's starter has gone past two innings, starting with Jorge López against the Yankees and Sunday with Adam Plutko's one-inning opener outing against New York. In the three games, O's starters allowed 17 hits and 15 runs including five homers, in 4 2/3 innings.

That stat is a bit deceiving because Bruce Zimmermann pitched great against New York in a bulk innings role. But that was officially a relief outing on Sunday.

O's pitchers have hit a bump in the road. They've given up five or more runs five straight games allowing 39 runs to raise the team ERA to 4.48, 11th in the American League.

On a more positive note, three times in the last four games, the Orioles have hit well with runners in scoring position.They went 6-for-16 last night and are 11-for-26 (.423) over the last two games and 15-for-38 (.395) in the past four games.

Outfielder Cedric Mullins went 1-for-3 last night and reached base three times. He now has his second 11-game hitting streak of the year. He began the seasons by hitting safely in 11 in a row and is the only player in the majors with multiple double-digit hit-streaks this season. During the current 11-game stretch, he is hitting .286 (12-for-42) with two doubles, a triple, one home run, one RBI, seven runs scored, four walks and two stolen bases.

Tampa Bay has won five in a row, outscoring the opposition 44-15. They began last night 11th in the AL in homers, then hit five to produce 12 of their 13 runs. Tampa was 13-15 on May 1, but is 11-4 since then.

About the close ones: In May, the Orioles have played three one-run games. They were against three winning clubs and they lost all three games.

On May 9, they lost 4-3 versus Boston. They held a 2-1 lead through five innings, but the Red Sox scored two runs in the sixth and one in the eighth to win. A few days later on the road, they lost 3-2 to the New York Mets. That was a walk-off loss when the Mets scored twice in the ninth off César Valdez. It was a game where the Orioles held a 2-0 lead after the top of the eighth but did not win. On Friday night, they held a 4-2 lead on the Yankees, but allowed a pinch-hit, three-run homer in the seventh to Gio Urshela.

Three very winnable games against teams with a combined .576 win percentage. But three games the Orioles did not get. Their record going into last night was 17-23, but would have been 19-21 with two wins in those games.

The O's hope is their young team is gaining something from these close losses and will eventually learn how to win these games.

"I mean, I'm happy that we are being competitive against good clubs," manager Brandon Hyde said. "Clubs that are put together to play in October with big payrolls. But, yeah, we've made some mistakes late in games that have cost us a few of those games. And you want to believe that our guys are going to continue to improve and learn from them and those experiences are valuable. That doesn't make it easy, though. And those losses are hard, and when we have a lead against those type of teams, you want to hold on because those teams are really, really good, And they are very, very talented and built to win. And I hope that we are learning from our experiences and can be better long-term."

AL East club records in one-run games:

.583 - Boston (7-5)
.571 - Toronto (4-3)
.556 - New York (5-4)
.462 - Tampa Bay (6-7)
.400 - Orioles (4-6)