Zach Britton: "This is unacceptable to our standards"

BOSTON - Rather than check the wild card standings, consider that the Orioles must go 6-1 this week to finish with their fourth consecutive winning record.

The goals have been whittled down.

The Orioles have been shut out in three straight games for the first time since July 29-31,1957 following today's 2-0 loss to the Red Sox. They haven't scored in 28 innings, five short of the club record set in '57.

"Guys are realistic in there, but at the same time, we're not thinking that we're done," said closer Zach Britton, who made his first appearance in a week and threw a scoreless eighth inning. "We have seven games left, and if anything, you're playing for pride and you're playing to make it tougher on Toronto and New York. Toronto has clinched a playoff spot, but New York hasn't. We don't want anybody celebrating on our field and that's the mindset we're taking into this homestand."

What about the importance of finishing at .500 or above?

"Yes and no," Britton said. "You want to be a winning team, but if you're not in the playoffs what does a winning season mean? Our goal is not to be a winning club, it's to be the club that wins the World Series. Maybe if you're talking to me five years ago, then yeah, OK, we're happy with .500 or over .500. But not now, not after being in the ALCS last year.

"This is unacceptable to our standards. No matter any way you cut it, if we're not in the postseason this year, it's a disappointment."

The odds were against the Orioles before they arrived in Boston. Then, the offense shut down and they had no chance in these three games.

"Sometimes you've got to tip your cap to the pitchers," said Adam Jones, who returned to the lineup and went 1-for-4. "They had us off-balance the entire series. I know I only played one game, but they had us off-balance. We hit balls hard right at guys. Just nothing to show for it. It happens like that.

"Previous series we had a lot of balls falling for us in D.C. It's just a game of inches and in this series we didn't get any of those inches."

Deflating?

"It happens," Jones said. "This is baseball. Nothing's deflating, man. It's baseball. We're grown men. When you go through tough times, you just fight through them. No complaining, no crying about it."

The Orioles were held to five hits by rookie Henry Owens and three relievers. Journeymen Rich Hill and Craig Breslow tied them in knots the previous two games.

"I don't think anybody's been pressing," Jones said. "We've just been getting our butts kicked. The Red Sox have been playing really good the second half. Once they started going to that youth movement in the outfield, they've been playing really good baseball. So, you hit the ball and you drive the ball, but no one's finding any space out there with those guys out there.

"We've just got to keep swinging the bats and stop crying and stop complaining. That's you guys. And keep playing the game."

There are seven games remaining, all of them at home.

"We've got a week left of baseball, so that means we've got a week left of playing our tails off," Jones said. "We look at it that way."

The Orioles have committed multiple errors in three of the last six games. Jones and Nolan Reimold dropped flyballs today while battling the sun.

"Yeah, that's terrible," Jones said. "That's something that hasn't happened to me often. It happened today. Very frustrating. But Ubaldo (Jimenez) picked me up. It was first and third and he came back and picked me up. Ubaldo threw a hell of a game. It's just unfortunate that we didn't score for him."

Jimenez held the Red Sox to two runs and six hits over seven innings, with one walk and six strikeouts. One run scored on a wild pitch. He's the first Orioles starter to complete six innings at Fenway Park this season.

Jimenez has three quality starts in his last four outings.

"I threw really good," Jimenez said. "I was able to go out there and give the team a chance to be close on the scoreboard. It's been really hard for us, especially these three days we haven't scored. There's nothing you can do. The guys, they're trying really hard. It hasn't gone our way.

"They've been tough because everybody's aware that we've been playing to hopefully get a spot in the playoffs. It's really hard when you don't win any of these games, especially these kind of games that you came over here with the mindset that you want to win."

Jimenez is 12-10 with a 4.10 ERA. He's got one start remaining.

"That's what you want to do is you want to finish strong," he said. "No matter what happens before, you have to find a way to survive through the season. I think that's what I've been able to do. I've been more consistent lately. I'm going out there and throwing more strikes. Besides the last game when I walked five guys, it's been pretty good."

The starters would need to throw shutouts just to keep the score tied.

"They were pretty difficult (games) I think from everybody's standpoint," Britton said. "We had periods where we threw the ball really well, the starters did, and we didn't get hits and then it seemed we didn't put something together offensively. You've got to give credit to Boston, too. They get paid to get guys out, too, and they did a really good job of that. Unfortunately we struggled a little bit out of the bullpen a couple times and a couple errors we usually don't make.

"It just seemed real uncharacteristic of us these last three games. Just a bad time for us as a team to not play very well. It's disappointing definitely going home knowing where we are. It's going to be an uphill battle. It already was, so I think everybody in there is pretty frustrated."

At least Britton got back on the mound, the lat injury no longer an issue.

"I felt pretty good," he said. "A little rusty with seven days off, but I calmed down after the first hitter. Manny (Machado) made an awesome play, which he normally does. I think one I saw that play from Manny I kind of settled down a bit.

"I think maybe it was a little better that it wasn't a save situation. Obviously, we want to win games, but just getting out there and getting my feet wet was good. Obviously, we didn't play nearly as well as we did in D.C., and it's unfortunate because of where we are, but we just have to keep chugging along and hopefully put together a good series back home."

The Orioles went 34-50 on the road. That's one component of their season that must improve in 2016. And it's just a starting point.

The Orioles hadn't been swept at Fenway Park since July 7-11, 2011, a span of 26 series. They finished 4-6 in Boston for their first losing series since 2011.

"It's frustrating," said manager Buck Showalter. "Our guys are prepared. They work hard to be prepared. They know exactly what the guy's going to do, and they're still able to do it. Everybody's trying so hard to get it back with one swing and this game doesn't work like that. It's tough to slow down when you're trying to push. That's why I tell my hitters, in basketball and football, you can push. In baseball hitting, sometimes you push too much and it gets worse."

At least Showalter can hang his hat on some decent starting pitching while also tipping it to the opposition.

"I will, I will," Showalter said. "These guys, Ubaldo's been a pretty consistent pitcher for us this year, and Chris (Tillman) had a seven-game winning streak and (Wei-Yin) Chen's been seventh or eighth in the American League in ERA.

"Pitching's hard. It's hard to pitch. It's a little easier to pitch in some conditions we've had here. We pitched well enough to win some of these games here. I wish the official scorer would stand out there. I never understood why a guy gets an error on a ball he can't see.

"Ubaldo's been solid. Like I say all the time, through ups and downs, he takes the ball every fifth day and he's ready to pitch. It's a great day to pitch. A 4 o'clock game, 1 o'clock game, it doesn't really matter with us right now the way we're swinging the bats. We come off a great series in Washington, and a couple of good games in Tampa. We've faced some real good pitching on this road trip. Left-handers, especially in this ballpark, you look at their history in day games, if you can command the fastball and get a changeup anytime in the count, but Ubaldo's been solid. He deserved a better fate, as did (Kevin) Gausman, I thought."

The Orioles' fate has become more clear as the team boards its charter to Baltimore.