Orioles lose on error and passed ball in ninth

That was a tough way to lose. The Tampa Bay Rays took advantage of an error and passed ball to score in the last of the ninth this afternoon and beat the Orioles 3-2 at Tropicana Field. This is the first time all year that the Orioles have lost an American League East road series. They went 7-0-1 in their first eight. Batting against Brad Brach, Yunel Escobar led off the ninth and reached on an error by shortstop Ryan Flaherty. He went to second on a sac bunt and third on a flyout. Later in the inning, Escobar was on third with two outs when Andrew Miller came on and Ryan Hanigan pinch-hit for David DeJesus. On Miller's second pitch, the ball glanced off catcher Nick Hundley's glove for a passed ball as Escobar charged home for the winning run. Kevin Gausman gave up two runs in the Rays' second as Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead. But otherwise, he had a strong outing. Over seven innings, Gausman allowed five hits and two runs with four walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 106 pitches and now has an ERA of 3.83. The Orioles got just one run off Drew Smyly. Over six innings, the left-hander gave up just four hits. In four games this season against the Orioles with Detoit and Tampa Bay, he has an ERA of 1.23. Over 22 innings, he has allowed 12 hits and three runs to O's batters. The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the second when Chris Davis hit his 26th homer on the first pitch from Smyly. Down 2-1 in the eighth, the O's tied it against Jake McGee. Steve Pearce drew a leadoff walk and Quintin Berry pinch-ran for him. He went to second on an errant pickoff throw and scored on a Nelson Cruz single to make it a 2-2 game. That was Cruz's 94th RBI. The Orioles fall to 82-59 with this loss and are now 33-22 against the AL East. Their division lead is at nine games over New York as the Yankees plays Kansas City this afternoon.