The longest game in O's history ends with a loss in the 18th

It was the longest game in Orioles history, but it didn't end well for the O's. David DeJesus came up with an RBI single with one out in the last of the 18th as Tampa Bay beat the Orioles 5-4 at Tropicana Field. It was a bitter loss for the Orioles, who would have been one game back of both Tampa Bay and Texas for the AL's second wild card berth with a win. But they didn't get it. The Orioles bullpen kept the Rays off the board from the eighth through the 17th, but the O's offense came up empty during that time as well. From the eighth inning through the end of the game, O's batters had just two hits in 35 at-bats. Much earlier, the Orioles fell behind again in the early innings as they did in every game of the Boston series. Jason Hammel gave up two runs on three hits and a Chris Davis error in the first, and a David DeJesus sac fly in the second made it a 3-0 game. Hammel went five innings, allowing six hits and three runs (two earned) with no walks and three strikeouts. He is winless in his last 12 starts. The O's scored once in the fifth on Adam Jones' bases-loaded infield single. But they left the bases loaded there and trailed 3-1. Matt Wieters doubled and scored on a Nick Markakis groundout to make it 3-2 in the sixth. The O's scored twice to lead 4-3 in the top of the seventh. Brian Roberts began the inning drawing a 10-pitch walk and Manny Machado was hit by a pitch. Jones' RBI double made it 3-3 and a Danny Valencia sac fly gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead. But Tampa pushed across a run off Kevin Gausman in the last of the seventh to forge a 4-4 tie. The game took 6 hours, 54 minutes, topping the previous longest in club history, which was a 6-hour, 15-minute game at Philadelphia that went 16 innings on July 2, 2004. This was the 13th straight Orioles game decided by two runs or less and they are 6-7 in that time. Now they have another game coming up today at 1 p.m. at Tropicana Field. A few postgame notes: Tampa Bay now holds the first AL wild card and Cleveland the second. Texas is a 1/2 game back of Cleveland while the Orioles and Kansas City are 2 1/2 back and New York is three out. The 21 pitchers used in the game is a major league record. There were 593 pitches thrown, 292 by the Orioles and 301 by the Rays. O's batters went 12-for-63 over the 18 innings and no Oriole had more than two hits. This was the sixth time in club history the Orioles played 18 innings. The team record for longest game by innings is 19. The Orioles beat the Washington Senators 7-5 in 19 innings on June 4, 1967 at Memorial Stadium in a game that took five hours and 18 minutes. Here is the boxscore. The Orioles have scored five or fewer runs now for 17 consecutive games, scoring four or less in 13 of those contests. The Orioles are now 39-39 on the road, 28-29 since the All-Star break and 6-10 against Tampa Bay. The Orioles have lost eight of their last 10 vs. the Rays and now trail the all-time series, 138-136.