Tillman's outstanding effort won't produce 15th win (O's lose 2-1)

Orioles pitcher Chris Tillman remains stuck on 14 wins. Tillman was superb today, holding the Athletics to one run and three hits over eight innings, with two walks and nine strikeouts. He retired the last seven batters he faced, striking out four. Unfortunately for Tillman and the Orioles, the game remains tied 1-1 as Darren O'Day enters in the top of the ninth. Jim Johnson was warming in case of a save situation. Tillman struck out the first two batters he faced in the eighth and retired Kurt Suzuki on a fly ball to left on his 115th pitch, a 94 mph fastball. Tillman's season high is 117. The nine strikeouts today ties Tillman's season and career high set on Aug. 9 in San Francisco. Tillman has completed at least seven innings in eight starts this season. He's completed eight innings in four starts. He's allowed two earned runs or fewer in five of his last seven outings. Does he qualify as an ace in your eyes? The Orioles are 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position today and have stranded seven runners. Their only run came on Ryan Flaherty's eighth homer in the third inning. A golden opportunity was wasted in the sixth. Manny Machado led off with his 44th double of the season and Adam Jones walked with one out. Matt Wieters hit into a force, with Jones' hard slide breaking up a potential double play, and Nick Markakis flied to the warning track in left field. Nate McLouth singled to lead off the bottom of the eighth and advanced on Machado's sacrifice bunt. The A's walked Chris Davis intentionally. Jones hit into a force and Wieters bounced out. Today's attendance: 33,834 Update: Coco Crisp had four hits last night, and he led off the top of the ninth today with a home run off O'Day to give Oakland a 2-1 lead. O'Day has surrendered seven home runs this season. Left-handers were batting .324 vs. O'Day before today, compared to .161 by right-handers. Crisp is a switch-hitter who, naturally, was batting from the left side against O'Day. O'Day struck out the next two batters, then committed a throwing error for the Orioles' 39th miscue this season. Update II: Game over. The Orioles' two-game winning streak comes to an end with a 2-1 loss to the A's. The Orioles are 14-23 in one-run games. They're three games behind Oakland in the wild card race.