Wrapping up a 3-1 loss

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - One run in 26 innings.

The story of another loss tonight can be told in many ways, but the main plot continues to center on an offense that can't catch a break or break out.

The Orioles dropped their second series in a row, losing to the Rays 3-1 at Tropicana Field. They'll try to avoid the sweep on Wednesday before heading home.

Chris Davis led off the fourth inning with a hustle double and scored on Mark Trumbo's single into left field. The next two batters reached on a walk and single to load the bases with no outs.

The score was tied. The Orioles were poised for a big inning against Rays starter Jake Odorizzi.

The knot didn't loosen. Jonathan Schoop popped up and Caleb Joseph grounded into a 5-4-3 double play, another hard-hit ball finding a Rays glove.

Good pitching deserves a tip of the cap, and the Orioles keep running into it, but the gesture gets old in a hurry.

"I think the past two games you could probably put a little bit more on there," Joseph said after the Orioles lost for the eighth time in their last 12 games. "We had their guy on the ropes, we had him right where we wanted to and we just didn't execute. Bases loaded, we need to score some runs there and take a little bit of pressure off Ubaldo (Jimenez). He had some high-stress innings.

"We've got to execute a little better in that situation. More times than not this season we have. Me personally, we've got to pick it up. We've got to get that run in. Multiple runs. We'll see. Tomorrow's a new day. We need a good performance and salvage one of these."

Adam Jones kept squaring up the ball and being denied, with center fielder Kevin Kiermaier making a spectacular leaping catch on the run to rob him in the first. Jones finally got a single in the fifth on the softest ball he hit all night.

Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard was 1-for-19 before reaching on an infield hit in the eighth. Schoop is 2-for-30, including a double play in the seventh after Pedro Alvarez's leadoff single. Manny Machado is 0-for-13 following a 16-game hitting streak to start the season.

"This is 162-game schedule. You're going to run into a lot of good pitchers," Joseph said. "You're going to run into, I'm not going to say 'slump,' some bad luck here and there.

"Jones hit the ball amazing today. Got one hit to show for it. Things like that. But long seasons like this, those guys get paid a lot of money over there, too. Got to keep grinding, keep at it, keep making contact - good, solid, hard contact - keep passing the baton like we did the first couple of games."

Joseph scorched a ball directly at third baseman Evan Longoria on the double play.

"They play good defense," Joseph said. "It's a quick surface here and they obviously know what they're doing. They turn quite a few double plays that I wasn't sure they were going to turn. They've got a good defense there. We've just to go keep squaring them up.

"We had what, nine hits today? We just need to rattle some of those together. We had a good opportunity in the fourth inning and just couldn't push them across, so we have to do that. When we get a pitcher on the ropes like that, we really have to be able to make it hurt, and tonight we let him off the hook."

The Orioles have their first three-game losing streak. They've lost four of their last five games and have totaled four runs in the losses.

"We've faced (Yordano) Ventura and (Chris) Archer, and of course, Odorizzi bent but didn't break," said manager Buck Showalter. "We had him just a swing away. I think the key to the game was them defensively. We hit four balls on the button that they defended. That's a tribute to them. Would have liked to create a couple opportunities we could cash in on. But they did, too. Our guys played well defensively, too.

"The opportunities we got, we've got to cash in. It's good pitching, but it's the major leagues. You're going to see good pitching almost every night. These teams are good that we're playing."

Ubaldo Jimenez allowed three runs over six innings for the Orioles' fourth quality start of the season. The game was tied 1-1 in the sixth before Kiermaier delivered a two-run homer with two outs and the count 0-2.

"When you're not scoring runs, that gets magnified," Showalter said. "We'll take that type of, that's a very competitive outing on the road. The difference was we couldn't get anything to find a spot to fall in. And that's a tribute to them. We didn't create enough opportunities and when we did create them, we couldn't cash in.

"We had a lot of pitches early on and that was tribute to the way our guys grinded. Usually, you get a good return for that. Tonight we didn't."

Jimenez would love to get back the pitch he threw to Kiermaier.

"It's hard when you give up a home run and lose a game because of one bad pitch," he said. "On 0-2, I just wanted to go up and in. I didn't want to throw anything close to the zone, but I left it right in.

"It hasn't been easy for me the last three games. Every inning I have to work hard to get out of the inning, but I've been able to battle. I haven't given up. I find a way to get back and get the next hitter out. I know the game. A game like that, I'm going to be able to win it, but right now we haven't been able to score a lot of runs, but we have a pretty good lineup and one of these days they're going to start doing what everybody's expecting."

A quality start was small consolation.

"I would never say I'm satisfied," Jimenez said. "I wish I could get deeper in the game. Six innings is a quality game, but I'm not satisfied with that. You want to go deeper in the game, that's what you work for. Six innings, you want to get deeper than that."

Joseph also felt the outing came down to that one pitch.

"I think so," he said. "They're a pesky little lineup. He did a good job of holding it where it was when he needed to, especially in that first inning. I think in the third inning he worked out of a nice jam there. That one pitch, it was a heartbreaker, I guess. Wanted it a little bit higher.

"It just sucks for a guy to put in a performance like that and keep grinding and grinding and for one pitch to dictate it, and usually that's what happens. He's a pesky hitter. He's got just enough pop to scare you a little bit, so I thought Ubaldo did a really nice job getting out of those jams for sure. He gave us some length today. It was unfortunate. He deserved a W today."

Davis made the Orioles' only run possible by poking a ball up the third base line against the shift, past the bag, and hustling into second base for the double. He finished with a combination slide/dive and somehow managed to avoid bloodying his nose.

Trumbo followed with a ground ball into left field, and Davis never broke stride while scoring on the play. It wasn't even close at the plate.

"That's Chris," Showalter said. "I think that's something people (miss). They all bear down, and rightfully so, on the home run. But Chris is a complete player and he takes a lot of pride in being that."