Orioles interim manager Juan Samuel has preached patience with his young pitchers, saying inconsistency is part of the maturation process and the occasional rough outing is expected.
Expected, maybe, but still unseemly to witness. It's made even worse when the club's young starters take consecutive beatings at the hands of American League East rivals.
Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman became the second straight Orioles starter to fail to complete three innings when he allowed seven earned runs in the third Monday night as the Tampa Bay Rays bashed the Orioles, 8-1, at Camden Yards.
Tillman, 22, was charged with eight earned runs, the most in his big league career, in just 22/3 innings, the third time in six Orioles starts this year in which he hasn't pitched at least three innings.
"I think the main thing is the command," Tillman said. "It just wasn't there tonight. I think that's obviously first and foremost with me; that's what I've been working on every time I've gone down [to Triple-A Norfolk] this season. Tonight it just wasn't there, and you can't get too many outs when you can't command the baseball."
Tillman's outing came on the heels of Sunday's performance by rookie left-hander Brian Matusz, who allowed six runs in 12/3 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, cementing a three-game sweep.
"These guys are young," Orioles designated hitter Luke Scott said. "Tillman doesn't even have a full year in the show, same thing with Matusz and all these young guys who have struggled. They haven't been in the majors for a full year. And it's unfair to put that type of pressure on them. We are competing in the East, against the most dominating hitting and pitching in baseball, seasoned vets."
Monday's loss to the Rays (56-36), was the Orioles' fourth straight since the second half began and dropped them to a major league-worst 29-63 on the season.
Tillman turned in his poorest outing of the season, following his best -- when he was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk on July 10 in Texas and allowed just one run and two hits in 71/3 innings.
On Monday, he survived two shaky innings, giving up just one run on three hits and two walks. In the third, however, everything fell apart for Tillman (1-4), whose ERA rose from 5.64 to 7.92 after the Rays touched him for seven hits and four walks.
"For a couple nights in a row, we haven't seen good pitching from our young guys," Samuel said. "Very inconsistent. Tillman tonight [was] missing his spots tremendously. His command was very, very bad. He was a different guy than what we saw in Texas. We were hoping that he would build on that, but we did not see that tonight."
With the Orioles trailing 1-0 heading into the top of the third, Tillman failed to retire the first six batters he faced. He didn't get an out until Sean Rodriguez dropped a safety squeeze bunt that scored B.J. Upton with the Rays' fifth run of the inning.
In the third, Tillman came within a home run of allowing an RBI cycle. He gave up a RBI walk, a two-run single, an RBI double and an RBI triple. He also hit a batter and issued a second walk.
When Samuel came out to get Tillman after Carl Crawford's run-scoring triple, some in the announced crowd of 12.972 booed the Orioles' young right-hander.
Evan Longoria singled against reliever Matt Albers to put the Rays up 8-0 before the Orioles had a chance to bat in the third.
It was the only hit allowed by Albers, who threw 31/3 scoreless innings as the Rays failed to get on the board again the rest of the evening.
But they didn't have to.
Rays starter Wade Davis (7-9), who entered Camden Yards with a 4.69 ERA on the season, allowed just one run in eight innings, his longest stint of 2010. The longest outing of his career came in September, a complete-game win at Camden Yards.
The 24-year-old rookie has just nine career victories; three have come against the Orioles. Dan Wheeler pitched a perfect ninth to secure Davis' second win of the month. Davis went 0-5 in June.
Davis retired the first seven Orioles he faced before Craig Tatum singled in the third. The Orioles scored their lone run in the fifth when Scott Moore walked, Tatum singled and Cesar Izturis hit an RBI single up the middle.
Izturis and Tatum, the Orioles' eighth and ninth hitters, reached base five times against Davis, who allowed just nine base runners. He gave up seven hits and a walk and struck out three.
The Orioles are 9-31 in 40 games against the AL East.