Russell speaks after 8-4 loss

The Indians lead the season series 4-0 after tonight's 8-4 victory over the Orioles. The Orioles have lost eight in a row, tying their longest streak of the season (April 9-18). They're 6-22 since entering their June 11 game with a 30-31 record, and they're batting .199 with runners in scoring position during that stretch. Orioles starters have completed seven innings only once in the last 27 games. Nick Markakis is batting .391 in his last 30 games, with seven doubles, three homers and 19 RBIs. Acting manager John Russell met with the media after the game.

On Jeremy Guthrie: "He missed his spots a little bit obviously in the first inning and if he gets the ball in a little bit more on (Asdrubal) Cabrera, I think it's a different story. The ball (Carlos) Santana hit didn't look like it was that bad of a pitch. The guy got it and hit it for a two-run home run, which really hurt us early. I thought Jeremy settled down a little bit. I think what helped him is he got his curveball going a little bit more later in the game and got them a little more off-balance. I think they were sitting pretty firm on him early and he started mixing in some off-speed and gave us an opportunity to try to come back against (Justin) Masterson, who is pretty tough on us." On falling behind in the first inning: "It's tough, but Buck (Showalter) has talked to the hitters and our offense about, early in the year we were pitching pretty well and we weren't scoring many runs. Now it seems like we're scoring a few runs and we're not pitching as well. And you can't worry about that. We've got to go out and compete and do our job and make sure we're prepared. We had some opportunities tonight. Second and third, one out (in the fifth) and we didn't get a run there. That really hurt us. I thought the momentum was getting ready to swing in our favor a little bit. We couldn't get through the sixth inning and it really hurt. When you're facing a pretty good starter, you can't give up those runs late. We couldn't stay away from the big inning in the sixth, and then you've got to keep battling back after that. But we've got to take it in stride. We've got to go out and continue to compete and get on a roll, and it's going to start with the guys on the mound." On Masterson: "He's got a very live arm with heavy sink. The ball just really bores down. We started to get to him a little bit and he went to his slider a lot more, which kept us off-balance a little bit. But we felt like we had some pretty good at-bats against him. It took us a little bit to get going, but we started to create some things. We got four runs, and in a game like that, if we stay close, then we get into the bullpens and we can use our back end of the bullpen and things can go a little bit different. But unfortunately it didn't happen for us. His ball moves very well. He attacks the zone. He's got live stuff - anywhere from 91 to 97 or 96. You've got to be ready to hit. I thought as we saw him a couple times through the lineup, the guys started to make some adjustments on him, started putting the barrel of the bat on the ball and we started creating some opportunities." On what it was like to manage again: "It was fun. Obviously, you don't' like the outcome. Hate to lose. But the guys go out and compete and play. Vlady (Guerrero) was down a little bit today, so we were a little bit strapped and there weren't a whole lot of things to do. We had a pretty fresh bullpen. It was nice to see Gonzo (Michael Gonzalez) come out and have a clean inning. We needed to get (Kevin) Gregg an inning and he had a clean inning. Again, the sixth inning hurt us bad late, but for me, Buck wasn't there and he asked me to step in. Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job of getting a win for him."