O's walk 10 and lose homestand opener to Seattle (with quotes)

Orioles pitchers tonight issued 10 walks. At times, they came in bunches and that was pretty costly. Baltimore walks led to four runs as the Seattle Mariners beat the Orioles 5-3 in front of 21,202 at Oriole Park. It was the opener of a four-game series and seven-game homestand.

The Orioles, now 4-4 in their last eight games, are 23-54 for the year and have lost 13 of 17 and 22 of their last 30. The Orioles are 1-12 in their last 13 home games. Seattle, winning for the second time in eight games, is 48-31 and in second-place in the American League West.

Right-handed reliever Miguel Castro's poor control led to two runs in the Seattle seventh that broke a 3-3 tie. He walked two batters around a bunt single to load the bases with no outs. Then Castro threw a wild pitch that catcher Caleb Joseph almost made a clean backhand stop on, but it kicked away from him and the Mariners led 4-3. Mitch Haniger's fly ball to center produced his 59th RBI and a 5-3 lead.

In the top of the ninth, Orioles reliever Darren O'Day and manager Buck Showalter were ejected by home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater. O'Day thought he had gotten Nelson Cruz to popout, but a balk had been called. It led to O'Day's first career ejection the 32nd for the skipper. And, yes ,it came on the night of the "Snow"alter snow globe promotion.

Much earlier, Orioles starter Andrew Cashner seemed to be heading toward a scoreless second inning with two outs and none on when he suddenly could not find the strike zone. Denard Span singled, No. 8 hitter Chris Herrmann walked on four pitches and No. 9 batter Guillermo Heredia walked on five. Leadoff batter Dee Gordon then lined a 3-2 pitch to center to score two runs. A walk to Jean Segura was Cashner's third of that inning and the bases were loaded again. But he got out of that when Haniger popped to short on the first pitch.

Meanwhile Seattle starter Félix Hernández, who began this game with an ERA of 5.14, was rolling through the Orioles over the first four innings, pitching out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth.

But Jonathan Schoop led off the fifth with a homer to left and it was a 2-1 game. Schoop hit No. 8 on an 0-1 changeup that traveled 382 feet and snapped a 2-for-20 run. The lead would grow back to two runs at 3-1 when Span hit his seventh homer off a 95 mph Cashner fastball in the top of the sixth.

In the home half, the Orioles would produce a 3-3 tie. They quickly loaded the bases on Manny Machado's single, Mark Trumbo's walk and Chris Davis being hit by a pitch. Segura at short made a diving stop on Trey Mancini's grounder in the hole to get a force, but a run scored and the Orioles were down 3-2. The next batter was Schoop and his liner deflected off Hernández's glove to short for a 1-6-3 groundout, but a run scored on that and the game was tied 3-3.

Cashner did not get a decision allowing four hits and three runs over six innings and has an ERA of 4.70. He threw 100 pitches, 58 for strikes. His ERA is 3.68 his past four starts.

The Orioles did not score over the final three innings off three Seattle relievers with Edwin Díaz getting his major league-leading 28th save. Baltimore falls to 7-40 when scoring three runs or less.

Postgame quotes:

O'Day's lengthy answer on his balk and ejection: "I was trying to get Nelson out. I know how good he is. Felt like I got him there and was just walking back to the mound. Heard Nelson talk to Haniger and wondered what they could be talking about. Was looking around and then Stu told me I didn't stop. After that, I don't know what he said.

"I lost it. Because I have two balks and this is my 11th season and both in the last year when he's behind the plate focusing on balls and strikes. He's balked me twice for an inside move that hasn't been a balk any other time in 10 years.

"To be fair, I've been warned to stop before. That is usually how most umpires handle it, They say, 'Hey, make sure you come to a stop.' 'Sure, no problem.' I respect the hell out of umpires. They have a hard job, they really do. I'm still not even sure who called it. Because nobody held their hands up or yelled time or called balk. A fan could have yelled balk, I don't know. Or the other team. Because no one explained it to me.

"The most unfortunate part about it is that, after I lost it and got ejected, Zach had to come in and pitch and then they rushed him warming up. Which is just ludicrous. Now you have to use a guy and that hurts us tomorrow. I'd love to hear an explanation. I don't know what it could possibly be. I've seen the video. Pretty clear stop. The same thing I've been doing for years and just over a calendar year I've been balked by the same guy in tight situations. And that's kind of why I have to apologize to my mom tonight for all those swear words I said."

Cashner on his outing: "I thought the second inning was kind of make-or-break for me. I didn't really command the baseball that inning. I thought it was big to bounce back from that and keep the team in the game from there. I just kind of lost the feel of the zone and kind of what I wanted to do with the baseball, but I was able to regroup and keep making pitches. I thought some of them were close and when you're going good I think you get those pitches. If was maybe them, maybe get those pitches. It just comes down to making pitches."

Caleb Joseph on facing Hernández: "He made us swing at a lot of balls. He's a little bit different than what we've seen in the past. He's getting older and becoming a little more crafty with his pitches. He's able to make pitches look like strikes, look like strikes, look like strikes and then end up being a ball. Those guys are tough because you know if you wait them out, they still have got really nasty stuff, so it's like try and get them early or wait them out. You try and come up with your game plan and then attack, whichever one you hope you're successful. We weren't successful. He got a lot of weak ground balls tonight. We probably could have taken some pitches. He's not going to give in, though. He's not going to serve you a 3-1 heater, a 2-0 heater. You've got to try and get something in the heart of the plate. He made it look like it was in the heart, but then you make your pass, and then it's probably a ball."