Orioles' losing streak reaches six games (with quotes)

HOUSTON - The center fielder is hurting, the closer is still playing catch in Sarasota, the losses are piling up and a team that once resided in first place in its division is more within reach of the cellar than the penthouse.

No one said "seller." It's only May and the Orioles are above .500. But their losing streak grew to six games tonight and it's not too soon to wonder how long it can stretch.

Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel came off the disabled list and allowed only one run over six innings in a 5-2 victory at Minute Maid Park, again putting the Orioles on the verge of being swept.

No pressure on Alec Asher, but he needs to play stopper on Sunday. And the offense needs to find its pulse.

The Orioles drop to 25-22 with their 12th loss in the last 15 games. This is the first time they've been only three games above .500 since they were 5-2 on April 12.

In five of the last six games, the Orioles have scored three runs or fewer while being shut out twice. The exception was a 14-7 loss to the Twins, who started Kyle Gibson and lived to tell about it.

The Orioles are in third place and 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees. They're three games ahead of the last-place Blue Jays.

Keuchel is 10-0 in his last 12 starts, the streak starting with an Aug. 21 game against the Orioles at Camden Yards. He came out tonight after 86 pitches.

Left-hander Wade Miley threw 100 pitches in five innings and was replaced by Tyler Wilson with the Orioles down 4-1. George Springer hit a 447-foot, two-run homer in the fifth to provide a little extra cushion for Keuchel and the bullpen.

Miley tied his season high with four runs allowed in five innings. This is the third time in four starts that he's gone five innings and the fourth in five starts if you don't count his early exit against the White Sox after being hit twice with line drives.

Wilson was charged with a run in the seventh and left with two men in scoring position and no outs. Richard Bleier kept the Astros from building on their lead.

Wilson's ERA climbed to 7.43 in 13 1/3 innings. Four of the six Astros reached base.

The Astros scored twice in the first inning and never trailed. It took all of three batters - Springer's leadoff single, Jose Altuve's RBI double on a ball that cleared center fielder Joey Rickard's head and Carlos Correa's infield hit.

Miley threw 24 pitches in the first, a single and walk extending his inning, but his pickoff of Correa at second base bailing him out. He threw only 12 in the second while retiring the side in order, but needed 24 in the third to strand two runners.

The Orioles got to Keuchel in the third inning with a rally that began with a two-out walk to No. 9 hitter Caleb Joseph. Rickard and Welington Castillo followed with singles, and Joseph slid across the plate when Astros catcher Brian McCann tried to make the tag before he got the ball.

Mark Trumbo lined a single into right field leading off the second inning. He was 0-for-10 in his last three games after going 10-for-17 in the previous four. But Chris Davis struck out looking again and Trey Mancini grounded into a double play.

Trumbo struck out in his next three at-bats.

Davis struck out swinging in the fourth inning, leaving him 2-for-30 with 16 strikeouts in his last eight games. He was 2-for-12 lifetime against Keuchel before tonight, but still made it into the lineup.

Perhaps sitting Adam Jones with a sore left ankle and hip influenced whether Showalter was going to start Davis. Jones is day-to-day and the Orioles are trying to keep him off the disabled list, which closer Zach Britton continues to occupy while engaged in a throwing progression at the Ed Smith Stadium complex.

Left-hander Tony Sipp replaced Keuchel in the seventh and Davis greeted him with a standup triple to right-center field, the ball taking a crazy bounce off the fence. It was Davis' fifth career triple and first since Sept. 21, 2013 at Tropicana Field.

That one probably took a crazy bounce off a catwalk.

Davis scored on James Hoyt's wild pitch to reduce the lead to 4-2. The Astros expanded it again, along with the Orioles' misery.

How long can it stretch?

Manager Buck Showalter on Miley: "As well as Keuchel was pitching, small margin of error, but we had another one of those outings where we had 100 pitches in the fifth inning. It's a tribute to them, too. But he's throwing a lot of pitches to get through that. But he kept the game engaged. We just haven't been doing much offensively. It's a real tribute to their pitchers and us not swinging the bat real well right now."

Showalter on whether there's such a thing as offensive tempo being impacted: "Maybe somewhat. The tempo's usually set by the other pitcher. He's a great locator of the baseball. If you go back through his other outings and see how many times he misses location compared to other people, you'll get an idea of why he's so good. But they get up early like that, guys tend to push more, which falls right into his repertoire."

Showalter on what it takes to break out of it: "It's not that simple. It doesn't happen in one game, it doesn't always work that way. You've got to have cooperation from the other club and they're not going to. That's a real good team over there with good pitching and a lot of ways to beat you. They play good defense. I'll tell you, if we hadn't played the type of defense we played the last two nights, it could have been a lot more lopsided. That's what I'm proud of. Our guys are really playing well, especially the infield."

Showalter on whether guys are pressing: "They pressed in Game 1. That's what we do. You push. And you're always trying to find that fine line between pushing and playing with some control, too. Because you bring emotion into it at-bats, really good pitchers take advantage of that."

Trumbo on how to get out of team slump: "It's kind of hard to pinpoint. I think everybody's probably got something different going on, but I think we're swinging at a lot of pitches we probably can't do much with. We need to do a better job capitalizing on the good pitches and laying off some of the ones that are in the dirt and so forth."

Trumbo on whether losing close games makes it more frustrating: "Nah, a loss is usually a loss. Sometimes it's better to get blown out than it is to get beat late in the game or whatever, but it seems like they've been getting the lead and holding it and we haven't done quite enough with the bats."

Trumbo on Keuchel: "He did a nice job. I think we got some pitches and we fouled them off. Obviously, myself included, we chased some, too. There's a reason his numbers are that good. He does a real nice job out there, but I think that we had a few that we probably didn't do as much with as we would have liked."

Trumbo on a veteran clubhouse having been through this: "We're going to play better. When, those things are sometimes too hard to say, but we have too much talent to struggle for too much longer. It could be tomorrow. It could be the next series. But we're going to start to do better."

Miley on running up pitch count again: "Just a lot of 3-2 counts, 3-1 counts. Obviously, I want to get deeper into the ballgame. A few pitches, 3-1 pitch to Springer, obviously had to throw him a strike with Altuve on deck. Didn't want to load them up for Altuve and he got it. Yeah, pitch count kind of got up again."

Miley on outing: "The first inning, I felt like I was getting ground balled to death. Balls were finding holes, obviously the (double) to Altuve, but I think there were about three or four ground balls that just kind of snuck through. It's part of it. I had a pretty quick decent second and third, and then struggled a little in the fourth and fifth. But just a couple counts where I fell behind 3-1, 3-2, and it probably cost me 15-20 pitches and that's the difference between five and seven innings."