ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - -After watching for more than a decade as their starting pitchers fall behind hitters game after game, year after year, the Orioles have stressed to their new crop of talented young arms the importance of throwing strikes.
Rookie Chris Tillman, who may have the highest upside of the group, is listening. But his yearning to get ahead in the count has had one considerable drawback: In his five big league starts, five of his first-pitch strikes have quickly left the ballpark, including three Wednesday night at Tropicana Field in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Tillman allowed just seven hits in six innings, but three were solo homers - all coming on 0-0 fastballs that he tried to sneak past Rays hitters.
"My first-pitch strikes obviously have got to get better," said Tillman (1-1), who recorded his first major league loss despite recording his third consecutive quality start. "The first one I was throwing to get ahead. The other two I missed my spots. It can't be like that."
Said Orioles manager Dave Trembley: "He threw 101 pitches in the game and 98 of them I thought he threw pretty well."
The three mistakes were enough to hand the Orioles their fifth straight loss, thanks to an offense that was just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and failed to score against Tampa Bay starter Jeff Niemann until Brian Roberts' solo homer in the eighth.
The Orioles (48-72) are a season-worst 24 games under .500. Since the All-Star break, they are 8-24 and haven't won a series.
In their two losses to the Rays, the Orioles are 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
"It's frustrating when you can't get hits and drive runs in. To win, you've got to score runs and we haven't been doing that lately," Orioles catcher Matt Wieters said. "But Niemann threw a heck of a game today, and we just didn't scratch anything across."
The Orioles had one golden opportunity against Niemann (11-5), who allowed seven hits and one run in 7 1/3 innings and left to a standing ovation from the announced crowd of 18,474.
Trailing 1-0, the Orioles loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth. Cesar Izturis hit a liner up the middle that might have scored two, but Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett dived and knocked the ball down. The runners had to hold for a moment, and the hesitation allowed Bartlett to jump to his feet and throw home to force out Wieters.
