O's pitching bashed as Nats rally from five down (quotes added)

This is how badly it is going for the Orioles right now: For the second time in four games, they held a five-run lead but did not win.

Leading 5-0 in the first and 6-1 after they batted in the top of the third, O's pitching collapsed to allow four runs each in the third and fourth innings and three in the sixth today as Washington stormed back to post a 12-9 win.

The Orioles have lost the first two games in this series and will be swept three straight in back-to-back series if they lose Sunday.

Ryan Mountcastle hit a grand slam and Anthony Santander hit a solo shot, but the Orioles still came up well short. From a five-run lead to a three-run loss.

They led Tampa Bay 5-0 through four innings with John Means on the mound on Wednesday and lost. They led 5-0 after one inning today and lost.

They fall to 17-28 and have lost a season-high five games in a row. They've lost nine of 10 and are 2-12 since Means pitched his no-hitter at Seattle. They fall to 11-10 on the road and to 45-37 in the all-time series with the Nationals.

As losses mount, manager Brandon Hyde said that, of course, he is concerned about how his team will handle this stretch.

"Yeah, you want your guys to feel good and yeah, I do worry about that," he said. "It's been a couple of tough years and we're not winning these games here the last couple of weeks. And that's tough. It's tough to lose in the big leagues, and you want guys to feel success.

"I was really happy with one, how we started the game offensively and two, how we made a run there late. We put up nine runs and 12 hits, did some nice things offensively. We're just having a tough time on the mound."

For a team struggling to score runs, the Orioles' top of the first provided a golden chance to get it going. But it was a chance that they almost let get away.

Leading 1-0, the Orioles loaded the bases with one out against old friend Jon Lester. But Lester got Pedro Severino looking at a called third strike changeup. Then Maikel Franco chased a pitch almost over his head to fan for the second out.

Lester was trying to minimize major damage and turn momentum toward his dugout.

But Mountcastle changed the script when he blasted a grand slam on a 3-1 cut fastball that found the middle of the plate. It was his first career slam and the hardest ball he has hit during the Statcast era. A 1-0 lead grew to 5-0 as Mountcastle lined that homer 386 feet to left-center with a 113 mph exit velocity. His fourth homer of the year produced the O's first grand slam of 2021 and the sixth allowed by Nationals pitching.

The O's had not hit a grand slam since Aug. 24, 2019 when Severino connected against Tampa Bay.

The O's first began when Cedric Mullins, 0-for-11 his past three games, blooped a single to right-center. Freddy Galvis then doubled into the left-field corner for a 1-0 lead. Trey Mancini and Santander walked to load the bases with no outs. Santander walked on the 11th pitch of his at-bat. Two strikeouts followed, but Mountcastle's blast provided a five-run lead.

But after a 1-2-3 first, O's lefty starter Bruce Zimmermann struggled badly for the next two innings as Washington mounted a comeback. He allowed a run on three hits in the second. In the third, Josh Harrison hit a grand slam for the Nats and the O's big lead was cut to 6-5. Zimmermann allowed seven hits and five runs over three innings.

After the game Zimmermann said he should have covered first sooner on the back end of a potential double play ball.

"The second inning was ... I mean, there were a couple of ground balls, obviously. It was a tough play to get over there on that ball over to (cover) first. Got to have a faster first step to make it a possible play for Freddy. That definitely changed the outcome of the inning. That one was a bit of mental lapse. We were doing different signs with guys on second and that one just kind of got by me on that one.

"The third inning I thought I got back to doing what I was doing in the first inning. Just kind of got unlucky with some soft contact there the first couple of guys. Kind of beared down. I can't have that two-out walk to (Kyle) Schwarber, even though he's a tough at-bat. Have to go after him, make it a little competitive there 3-2. Really, the only thing that I want to have back is probably that pitch to Harrison. I thought I did good job of bearing back down in that inning and was just a pitch away from getting out of it, and then left it up in the zone."

This was the first game where each team had a grand slam through three innings since Sept. 4, 2002, with Cincinnati at St. Louis. Jason Larue connected for the Reds and Edgar Renteria for the Cards.

When right-hander Adam Plutko replaced Zimmermann to start the Nationals fourth, the Orioles lost the lead. Trea Turner's RBI double tied it 6-6 and Ryan Zimmerman's three-run homer on a hanging breaking ball provided the Nats a 9-6 lead. Plutko allowed four runs in the inning. To that point, he had allowed 10 runs and four homers in his last three games, covering 2 1/3 innings. He had a 1.27 ERA through 15 games. Now it is up to 4.74.

Plutko said he didn't want to spend too much time on the negative parts of his game and the O's game today.

"I think it's just kind of a rough stretch, to be honest with you. Honestly, I'm encouraged by what Shawn Armstrong did today. I'm encouraged by what Cole Sulser did today. I'm encouraged myself with the second inning. You can dwell on negative all day long, but in baseball, this game is hard enough, so let's look for positives and really focus in on those. ... I know what my line was and I know what my first inning was, but what is the point of beating up myself on that? That seems pretty pointless, and what is the point of dwelling on a lot of us maybe struggling for a hot minute or being in a quick slump? Let's build on some positives."

Santander's solo homer in the fifth - part of his three-hit game - cut the deficit to 9-7. But Washington added three runs off Tanner Scott in the sixth on four hits and an error charged to third baseman Franco. Since leading 6-1, the O's were outscored 11-1 through the seventh.

But the Orioles made some late noise on Pat Valaika's two-run double in the eighth. They pulled within 12-9. Later that inning, Mancini was up with two men on as the tying run, but fanned against a Daniel Hudson slider.

Baltimore pitching has allowed five runs or more in eight of the last nine games, allowing 74 total runs. Since the start of the series with the Tampa Bay Rays, the O's have given up 48 runs the last five games.

Hyde said it was "probable" that the Orioles would make at least one pitching roster move before Sunday's series finale.

In the that game tomorrow in Washington, right-hander Matt Harvey (3-4, 5.93 ERA) pitches against lefty Patrick Corbin (2-3, 6:10 ERA) at 1:05 p.m.