Trevor Rogers walked off the mound tonight to another standing ovation and with his ERA under 5.00, its lowest point since April 25.

Rogers is familiar with low points, but his career is on the upswing again.

The left-hander allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings, with no walks and a season-high seven strikeouts in the Orioles’ 3-1 victory over the Nationals before an announced crowd of 26,901 at Camden Yards.

Manager Craig Albernaz pulled Rogers after 87 pitches, and Tyler Wells retired both of his batters to strand a runner. Wells has tossed 9 1/3 scoreless innings this month.

Grant Wolfram struck out two while retiring the side in order in the eighth, Ryan Helsley cruised to his eighth save and the Orioles improved to 39-44 while knocking the Nationals below .500 at 41-42 with a fourth consecutive loss.

Rogers has allowed only three runs in his last three starts over 19 1/3 innings. His scoreless streak reached 15 innings tonight.

“He had his fastball going,” Albernaz said. “He had great life to it. And he was like 94, 95 pretty much the whole time he was out there. He did a great job mixing his off-speed, too, but he’s leaning heavily on his heater.”

“I think it complemented everything really well,” Rogers said. “Kind of piggybacked on L.A.’s start. Fastball has been playing really well right now and I’m just going to use that to my advantage and attack hitters with it.”

The Orioles broke a scoreless tie with two outs in the bottom of the fourth on Blaze Alexander’s two-run, bases-loaded single off left-hander Andrew Alvarez at 106.8 mph. But for the second time this month, a run came off the board when Alexander was thrown out before Jackson Holliday reached home plate.

Taylor Ward singled to right-center and Alexander was cut down at third base. The Orioles should have led 3-0.

Samuel Basallo flied to center field in the eighth inning of a June 8 game against the Mariners at Camden Yards. Alexander tried to advance to second base as Holliday raced home and Julio Rodriguez threw him out.

Tonight’s single raised Alexander’s average to .372 with a 1.021 OPS with runners in scoring position.

“There was a lot there in that play to unpack,” Albernaz said. “The first thing with Blaze is, love the aggressiveness, just like we talked about before and we talked in the dugout. When the ball’s hit in right-center field gap and James Wood is ranging to right-center field, he’s right-handed, there’s gonna be no play at the plate. The only play’s gonna be at third. So I love the aggressiveness, but also, being smart to shut it down, knowing the situation and where the ball is at.

“And then with Holliday, it wasn’t miscommunication. But Gunnar (Henderson) did a great job of telling him to hurry up to get to home plate, but Holliday took it as, I’ve got to get down. And that’s why he slid. So there was a lot to unpack there and luckily it didn’t come back to bite us in the (butt).”

Coby Mayo’s second double of the night, at 113 mph, scored Ward in the seventh inning for a 3-1 lead. Mayo scalded a sinker from right-hander Brad Lord and had his first career two-double game.

“To come through again against the righty for the single there, that was huge,” Albernaz said. “His at-bats, great swings tonight.”

Mayo was hitting .145 with a .441 OPS against right-handers before tonight and .304 with a 1.111 OPS against lefties.

“I mean, it’s been my Kryptonite this year,” Mayo said. “I feel like I haven’t done my job vs. righties this year, and I know I can hit them. I’ve done it for a long time, and it felt really good to come through in that spot and take two good swings, first pitch and second pitch. So, was definitely a good feeling.”

Rogers retired the first six batters on 19 pitches before Jacob Young led off the third by reaching on Henderson’s throwing error – the shortstop’s fifth miscue this month. Nasim Nuñez grounded to Henderson, who started a 6-4-3 double play.

Wood had the first hit with a leadoff single in the fourth inning, but Rogers escaped another jam.

Rogers finally gave up a run in the fifth despite striking out three batters. Young doubled with one out and scored on Keibert Ruiz’s two-out single.

Dylan Crews began the seventh with a double and Rogers was removed after Daylen Lile popped up.

“It’s awesome,” Mayo said. “I love when he pitches. Even when he was going through it a little bit, I always have confidence in him, because I watched it last year, every five days, him dominate. I know he works his butt off, he’s a grinder, he game plans well. He does everything well.

“Sometimes you just don’t get the results, and I think that was kind of what was going on with him a little bit. He doesn’t stop working, so credit to Trev. He’s been great.”

Rogers was 0-3 with a 10.31 ERA in four May starts after going on the injured list with the flu.

“I questioned my confidence a lot because it just seemed like if I tried to change a game plan or tried something else, just nothing was going my way, and that’s what’s hard about this game sometimes,” Rogers said. 

“I kind of leaned back on the mental skills that I’ve acquired over the past couple years, and to really trust the process and know that eventually that I’d get through it, and I’ve been able to be consistent, throw the ball really well over the last, I don’t know, four or five starts, and just keep doing what I’ve been doing, maintain the same process and just really just try to be consistent and not really try to chase anything else.” 

The Orioles stranded 11 runners but it didn’t cost them. Rogers and the bullpen didn’t need much support.

“Three runs were enough to win the game,” Albernaz said. “The goal is just touch home plate more than the other team.”

Feeling left in

Tyler O’Neill was in tonight’s lineup and batting fifth despite his .183/.277/.267 line. The Nationals had a left-hander on the mound, but O’Neill was only 7-for-56 against them.

O’Neill doubled with one out in the second inning, pulling a curveball down the left field line at 104 mph. He reached third base with two outs on Basallo’s grounder to the right side, but Leody Taveras was thrown out trying to steal after drawing a walk.

Holliday fell behind 0-2 and took a slider outside the zone as Taveras broke for second base.

Holliday led off the third with an infield hit, Ward reached on an infield hit with one out and both runners were stranded.

O’Neill walked in the fourth and fifth innings, the latter against Lord.

Ward had three hits and reached on an error.

Defense goes from bad to good in an instant

Curtis Mead dumped a single into shallow center field after Wood’s leadoff double in the fourth, with Holliday unable to make the catch with his back to the infield. Taveras picked up the ball and fired it to third base after Wood initially held up, and Mead hustled to second.

No error on the play, but the Orioles need to keep Mead at first base.

The chance at a double play was erased, but Alexander made a nice stop of Andrés Chaparro’s grounder and threw home for the out, CJ Abrams popped up, and Holliday corralled Crews’ 103.6 mph grounder and threw him out.

Down on the farm

Dean Kremer made his second rehab start with Triple-A Norfolk and tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings with two hits, one walk and eight strikeouts. He threw 79 pitches, 50 for strikes.

Dylan Beavers went 0-for-4 atop the order and is batting .091 on his rehab assignment. Enrique Bradfield Jr. had three hits.

Cade Povich made his second start with Double-A Chesapeake and allowed three earned runs and four total with five hits in 3 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out four. Povich threw 66 pitches, 44 strikes.

Ethan Anderson hit his 15th home run. Victor Figueroa belted his 21st home run with High-A Frederick. Colin Tuft hit his eighth.