Orioles offense comes up short again in series-opening loss

DETROIT - The story was familiar again tonight for the Orioles. On a night where they got some solid starting pitching, again their offense did little to support that.

The Detroit Tigers snapped a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 win at frigid Comerica Park. The Orioles fall to 5-12. They have lost four in a row and six of their last seven. They are 3-8 on the road.

Right-handers Dylan Bundy and Andrew Cashner have made a combined eight starts this year with six quality starts, yet the Orioles are 2-6 in those games.

Cashner took the loss tonight and is 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA. Over six innings he permitted seven hits and three runs with three walks and five strikeouts. He threw 91 pitches and has allowed just four runs in 19 innings over his past three starts.

But the Orioles scored just seven runs in their recent three-game series against Toronto. They scored seven runs in three games at Fenway Park. They have scored two runs or fewer in eight of their 17 games.

Early on, the Orioles trailed the Tigers 2-1 at the end of three. Detroit's Victor Martinez hit his first homer of the year, a two-run shot in the second, after a walk to Nicholas Castellanos. That provided the Tigers with a 2-0 lead.

The Orioles got one back on Trey Mancini's line drive homer to left in the top of the third off left-hander Francisco Liriano. Mancini drilled a 1-1 curveball 376 feet for his second homer of 2018. He ended a nine-game RBI drought.

The Orioles offensive frustrations grew deeper when second baseman Luis Sardiñas, called up just today from the minors, was robbed of extra bases with two outs and two on in the fourth. He drove one deep to left and left fielder Niko Goodrum got turned around and took an interesting route but made a leaping catch on the warning track. The play kept Detroit in the lead by one.

The Orioles tied it 2-2 in the fifth on Adam Jones' RBI single to right. It scored Craig Gentry, who had reached on a fielder's choice. But on Jones' single, Manny Machado made a baserunning mistake trying to go from first to third and was gunned out to end the inning.

Not long after, Detroit broke the 2-2 tie. With one out in the home fifth, Leonys Martin reached on a bunt single. The next batter was Jeimer Candelario and he drilled a 400-foot triple to right-center for his fourth RBI and a 3-2 advantage.

The Tigers added a key insurance run in the eighth when Mychal Givens threw a wild pitch with runners on second and third and two outs. That made it 4-2.

Cashner pitched out of jams getting double play grounders in the fifth and sixth, but the O's offense kept coming up short. Mancini and Jones had two hits each but O's batters struck out 12 times, including three by Chris Davis.

With a threat of rain here on Wednesday night, tomorrow's game was moved from 6:40 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. Right-hander Kevin Gausman (1-1, 6.60 ERA) will pitch against lefty Matthew Boyd (0-1, 1.38 ERA). The game will be televised on MASN.