WASHINGTON – At least the Orioles didn’t have to travel far to experience another disappointment.

Coming off a series win against the Yankees at home, the Orioles almost were shut out for the first time this season before loading the bases with no outs in the ninth inning and again with two outs in a 3-2 loss to the Nationals before an announced sellout crowd of 38,912 in D.C.

Right-hander Zack Littell brought a 6.94 ERA into the game and blanked the Orioles on two hits over five innings. He was removed after 87 pitches with the Nationals ahead 1-0.

Jacob Young ran down Adley Rutschman’s deep fly ball to center field in the first. Littell escaped a jam in the second after a pair of walks, and he stranded Taylor Ward in the third after a two-out single.

Coby Mayo was hit near the right elbow with one out in the fifth, stayed in the game after head athletic trainer Scott Barringer checked on him and reached third base with two outs on Gunnar Henderson’s 111.9 mph double to the right field fence. Taylor Ward grounded out.

Mayo singled with two outs in the seventh at 116.5 mph, the highest exit velocity of his career, and Jeremiah Jackson doubled at 110.9 mph. Henderson came to the plate as the potential tying run and struck out.

Reliever Andrew Alvarez allowed two hits and struck out five in three innings, came back out for the ninth and made a mess. Samuel Basallo had a leadoff single and Tyler O’Neill walked.

Gus Varland walked pinch-hitter Leody Taveras to load the bases, and the Nationals’ pitching was back to being atrocious. Mayo struck out, but Jeremiah Jackson brought home Basallo with a sacrifice fly and left-hander Richard Lovelady gave up an RBI single to Henderson.

“I didn’t really feel like we did anything different,” Henderson said. “We took a lot of good swings today and just didn’t fall our way. Early on, I felt like we had a lot of really good swings, and obviously the hits didn’t show it, but I loved our at-bats today and obviously we got it going there in the ninth. But all around, I felt like we should have won that game. But I felt like with those at-bats, if we could do that day in and day out, we’re going to put up a lot of runs.”

Ward drew his 43rd walk to load the bases again, but Rutschman struck out.

“Alvarez came in, he did a good job keeping us off balance,” said manager Craig Albernaz. “He had both breaking balls going really well against us. Basallo did a great job his last at-bat to kind of get a barrel on one, and that’s when the ninth inning really started getting going for us and we had a chance to win.”

Shane Baz turned in his first quality start with the Orioles by allowing three runs and six hits in a season-high seven innings, with three walks and four strikeouts. He shaved a few hairs off his ERA, from 5.48 to 5.26.

A better Baz

But not good enough on this night.

In Baz’s two previous starts this month, he allowed 10 earned runs and 11 total over 10 1/3 innings. The Orioles got an improved version of him against the Nationals, but he couldn’t handle Daylen Lile.

Lile was a triple short of the cycle by the sixth inning, when he hit a two-run homer to give Washington a 3-0 lead.

Baz was playing in traffic again early, allowing a two-out single in the first and putting two runners on base in the second on Lile’s leadoff double and Jorbit Vivas’ one-out walk. Young lined out to Pete Alonso to strand them.

Baz retired the side in order on five pitches in the third, but he fell into immediate trouble in the fourth on singles by CJ Abrams and Lile that put runners on the corners with no outs. O’Neill charged Brady House’s shallow fly ball and made a tremendous diving catch, but Abrams scored for a 1-0 lead.

Seven of eight batters were retired after Lile’s single, and Baz had a 10-pitch fifth. A leadoff walk to Curtis Mead in a 28-pitch sixth inning set up Lile for his seventh homer of the season, with a knuckle-curve launched into the right field seats.

Nine of the 25 pitches thrown in the seventh came against Baz’s final batter. He stranded a runner on Mead’s fly ball and finished at a career-high 108 pitches.

“I felt good,” he said. “I felt like I kept my command pretty well. I kind of got into the groove after the first inning, probably and just kind of tried to keep challenging guys the whole time. All four felt pretty good, I guess five pitches felt pretty good.

“A lot of credit to (Drew) French and the staff here about helping me recognize what I can do better and giving me a plan throughout the week of like, I guess, in between starts of just stuff that I can do that will help that. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction, for sure.”

“Baz looked good,” Albernaz said. “He gave us a great chance to win. Pitch count was efficient, got him into the seventh. Pitch count got higher in the seventh. Some grindy at-bats. But no, he pitched very well. Well enough for us to win the game.”

Elias on record: “We’re disappointed with it”

President of baseball operations Mike Elias sat in the visiting dugout and talked to the media for about 16 minutes, beginning with the surgery news on third baseman Jordan Westburg. That’s why we gathered.

Updates on other injured Orioles were provided, with closer Ryan Helsley playing catch for the first time today seeming like a big deal. Elias also discussed the challenges of working the trade market in May and whether the roster could change again with outfielder Dylan Beavers on the injured list and the team carrying three catchers.

Of course, there’s got to be a review of the team’s early performance and a record that stands at 20-25 after tonight’s game.

“I talked about it. We’re disappointed with it,” Elias said.

“I think we have a handful of players that aren’t hitting as well as they can and will and should. I think the rotation thus far, the results have been below what I would have expected with our planning. I do think both of those things are gonna turn around. This is a team that was built on its offense, and I think getting the offense clicking up and down the lineup is really gonna be a priority for us to improve that record. And then, we have had more than our share of health problems. So it’s been a few things.

“Ultimately, the plan that we put together hasn’t clicked fully yet, but we’re still I think a game and half out of the playoffs as of right now and we’re fully focused on making a charge, and I think the team here in the month of May has a chance to get that win-loss record flipped and get ourselves over .500, which is really where we want to be going into the summer months.”

Down on the farm

Jackson Holliday, starting at third base for Triple-A Norfolk, and Heston Kjerstad had back-to-back singles to begin the third inning, and Johnathan Rodríguez followed with a sacrifice fly. Holliday walked twice and struck out twice.

Thomas Sosa hit his third home run for Double-A Chesapeake.

Braylin Tavera hit his third home run for High-A Frederick.