Trevor Rogers stared straight ahead as Dillon Dingler made contact in the top of the first inning. He finally took a brief glance, got confirmation on the two-run homer and turned back to wait for a new baseball.

The struggling left-hander could steer tonight’s outing in two directions. Flush the pitch, bear down and give the Orioles a quality start to cleanse himself of the recent messes, or spiral again and raise more concerns about the string of poor performances from the rotation’s No. 1 guy.

The team with a chance to sweep a doubleheader also needed Rogers to brush off the at-bat, and everything else that’s gone wrong since the middle of April.

Rogers retired 11 in a row after the homer, looking more like the 2025 and early ’26 versions, but Kevin McGonigle chased him in the fifth with a bases-loaded, two-out single in the Tigers’ 4-1 victory before an announced Game 2 crowd of 19,735 at Camden Yards.

Maybe there was a third direction. Rogers was better but not all the way back, and he suffered his career-high sixth loss in a row. He’s the first Oriole to lose six straight since Charlie Morton in 2025.

The Orioles are 23-30 with the first-place Rays coming to town. The Tigers (21-33) had lost eight in a row, 11 of 12 and 16 of 18. They came within a Colton Cowser three-run walk-off homer of sweeping the doubleheader.

McGonigle ran the count full and lined Rogers’ 90th pitch into center field to bring manager Craig Albernaz out of the dugout. Andrew Kittredge loaded the bases with a walk before recording the last out.

Rogers allowed four runs and four hits in 4 2/3 innings, and his ERA crept a little higher to 6.96. He’s surrendered 29 earned runs (31 total) and 37 hits in 23 2/3 innings over his last six starts. Tonight marks his longest outing since going five innings on April 19 in Cleveland.

“I think this past month we kind of took a couple steps back and it was like, ‘OK, what can I really improve on?'” Rogers said. “And I think my command on the inside part of the plate has been terrible up to this point, and that was probably my main focus this outing is command the inside part of the plate, get them to start looking inside so it opens up a way. I think I did an OK job of that. I don’t think I commanded as well … I was getting strikes on the inside part. But 11 in a row at one point.

“I really like where I’m headed and I’ll just keep showing up every day and eventually things will start going my way more consistently.”

Spencer Torkelson drew a leadoff walk in the fifth and Wenceel Pérez singled. Zack Short walked with one out to load the bases, Matt Vierling popped up and Rogers was a strike away from escaping.

“The velo was great on the fastball,” said manager Craig Albernaz. “He did a great job pairing the two-seam and the four-seam together and getting to the right locations and mixing in the cutter, too, as well. And obviously you know Rogers’ changeup is a really good pitch. He did a good job of getting it where it needs to go and kind of not leaving it out over the plate. It was a very encouraging outing and I thought he was close to getting out of that jam in that inning. So he threw the ball well. Very encouraging for us.”

“Just keep going about my days and execute what I need to execute,” Rogers said when asked how to get himself over the barrier. “McGonigle, he got my pitch. My pitch is my changeup and he got me, so you just have to tip your cap. I think if I really focus on executing on the inside of the plate, and that means throwing more strikes, and get their attention in there, I think that can open up everything else. I think that’s when things are going well with the 11 straight. I was getting strikes on the inside part and everything else was there.”

The Orioles tried to rally again in the ninth, this time against Drew Anderson. Pete Alonso and Samuel Basallo walked, but three consecutive strikeouts sent everyone home.

The Tigers reinstated Troy Melton from the 60-day injured list to start Game 2. Basallo had the Orioles’ first hit, on his bobblehead night, with a 111.3 mph one-out single in the second inning. Cowser won a challenge with two outs to draw a walk, but McGonigle made a leaping catch at third base of Blaze Alexander’s 105.7 mph line drive.

Alexander slammed his bat to the ground. More hard contact.

Basallo had a sacrifice fly in the fourth after Adley Rutschman’s leadoff walk and Alonso’s single.

Melton allowed one run and two hits in 5 2/3 innings. He retired seven straight before Rutschman walked again in the sixth.

“Melton was really good,” Albernaz said. “He’s a really good pitcher. The velo, the split. He has the breaking balls. Like, he’s a really good pitcher. Forgive me for saying this, but we hit a lot of balls hard enough. On the barrel. And that’s all you can do is try to get barrel to baseball and see what happens, and our guys put a lot of good swings on the ball tonight.”

Albert Suárez covered the last four innings for the Orioles and didn’t allow a run. He saved the bullpen but was designated for assignment again in order to keep Grant Wolfram on the roster.

“He’s been outstanding,” Albernaz said. “Whenever we call on him, he always seems like he eats up four to five innings on like 50 pitches. He throws strikes. He competes. He has no barrel fear. He doesn’t care if he gets hit or not, and he keeps on attacking. That’s something I love about him, always did, going back to our roots in Tampa Bay, but Suárez is an extremely valuable piece to what we do.”

*The Orioles are promoting left-hander Caden Hunter and right-hander Todd Kniebbe to High-A Frederick. Hunter is a sixth-round draft pick in 2025 who struck out nine today in four innings with Class A Delmarva and has a 1.17 ERA and 0.91 WHIP with 40 strikeouts in 23 innings. Kniebbe has a 2.41 ERA in 13 relief appearances with the Shorebirds and has struck out 27 batters in 18 2/3 innings.

Heston Kjerstad hit his first home run with Triple-A Norfolk. Tommy Pham played in his first game, leading off and starting in left field, and was 0-for-4 with a walk and run scored.

Braylin Tavera hit his sixth home run for Frederick. Kiefer Lord allowed one run and two hits with seven strikeouts in four innings.

*The Orioles are starting Kyle Bradish on Monday and Shane Baz on Tuesday. They’re listing Wednesday as TBA.