The Detroit Tigers didn't need any late-inning heroics to complete their three-game sweep of the Orioles.
On Wednesday, all that was necessary were a few runs and right-hander Max Scherzer, who threw seven dominant innings in Detroit's 4-2 win before an announced 22,837 at Comerica Park.
The loss dropped the Orioles (25-59) to a season-low 34 games under .500 and put them 1-5 on this final, 10-game road trip of the season's first half.
It was the ninth time this year the Orioles have been swept in a series and the sixth on the road.
In their first two games of the Detroit series, the Orioles held the lead before handing it back to the Tigers (46-37), who remain in first place in the American League Central.
Scherzer (6-6) made sure there would be no lead changes in this one. He retired the first 11 batters he faced before Nick Markakis hit an infield single with two outs in the fourth.
"There's no doubt our offense was clicking. Tonight he shut us down," Orioles interim manager Juan Samuel said. "He made some good pitches, mixed well in and out and challenged our hitters."
Winning his fourth straight decision, Scherzer used a mid-90s fastball and sharp breaking pitches to keep the Orioles off balance. He allowed six hits, two walks and one run in seven innings while striking out six.
"We just couldn't take advantage of him," Samuel said. "Earlier, our guys were saying that they weren't seeing the ball very well. And I know that's the case here in this ballpark, but it's not making an excuse. He did have good stuff, challenged our guys and it was just one of those nights where our offense didn't click."
The Orioles' first run was scored by Adam Jones, who also provided the most entertaining moment of the night. Jones hit a sharp liner into the left-field corner for an easy double.
On his way around first base, Jones tripped and fell face-first onto the infield dirt. Simultaneously, Tigers left fielder Brennan Boesch slipped, allowing the ball to trickle past him and Jones enough time to get up and trot into second base with a smile on his face.
Jones scored when Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson overran Matt Wieters' single to center. It was the Orioles' only hit in four chances with runners in scoring position, putting them at an abysmal .229 in 2010.
They stranded six runners Wednesday and 32 in the three-game series with the Tigers.
The lack of run support wasn't anything unusual for Orioles starter Brad Bergesen, (3-6), who hasn't won since May12, a span of seven starts.
In his past four games, the Orioles have scored just four runs while Bergesen was in the game, a period of 20 innings. He left with no outs and two runners on in the seventh with the Orioles trailing 4-1.
Coming off one of his better starts of the season, Bergesen wasn't impressive, but he kept the Orioles in the game early on. He allowed a RBI groundout in the first inning and the first major league homer of rookie Danny Worth's career in the third, a solo shot to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
"I felt like I threw the ball good," Bergesen said. "A couple bad pitches, a couple good pitches that they [hit]. I am happy with how I threw it. I'm not happy with how it ended. But I think I did a good job getting into the seventh inning and just keeping the team in the game today."
The Tigers scored two more in the fifth on two doubles and a single, three of the 11 hits against Bergesen on the night, tying his season high.
"There were a couple pitches that I didn't make that they took advantage of, especially with two outs with no runners on," Bergesen said. "For them to put a little rally together like that [in the fifth], it really killed me. That was obviously my worst inning."
The Orioles got within two runs in the ninth, when Jones hit a leadoff triple against Robbie Weinhardt, who was making his major-league debut, and scored on Wieters' sacrifice fly. In the eighth, Weinhardt faced his first big league batter, Miguel Tejada, and hit him.
It was one of the few things that went wrong in the three-game series for the Tigers.
"That's the game," Orioles shortstop Cesar Izturis said. "Somebody had to lose. We played great games. We played to win the game. We lost all three, but we have to forget about this series and focus on Texas."