Brian Matusz hasn't gone more than 5 2/3 innings in his last four starts, and tonight he failed to retire a batter in the sixth before exiting. "It's a great hitting team, one through nine," he said. "I made some good pitches to get out of some innings, but when it came down to it, I left some fastballs over the plate." Matusz was allowed to come back out for the sixth, but Peter Bourjos' two-run homer ended his night. "I was fighting all the way through to stay in that game, and that was a killer in the sixth there," he said after allowing a career-high 13 hits. "It was a 3-2 changeup that I just tried to throw over the plate and it ended up being up and out over the plate and Peter hit it out. That was tough. I've got to work down the zone a little bit better." Matusz's biggest frustration over these last four outings is "just not being able to go deep in games," he said. "It's been just a couple pitches here and there each game. It's just being able to eliminate the mistakes and get back on track. "My stuff wasn't really sharp today. Breaking pitches weren't there. I was relying on locating the fastball and I left a few over the plate and that's what really hurt."

So what can he do to correct the problem? "Just getting back out there and working hard in the weight room and then getting on the mound and getting into a good rhythm and just being a little bit more consistent," he said. "That's all I can do." The Orioles had their chances to put more runs on the board, but they were 1-for-8 with RISP to extend their streak to 2-for-41. "You have to take the positive out of it," Adam Jones said. "We keep getting ourselves into position. We just need to hit. But we're getting ourselves in position. We're looking at it in a positive light. "We've left some guys on base. We had the opportunity to score more runs and we didn't, but we had the opportunity. We have to bear down, get in scoring position and get that hit. It's not easy. "It's part of the game. No one's making excuses. We're going to go out there tomorrow and put ourselves in the same situations and hopefully come through. We're going up there swinging. We're not going up there passive. No one's making excuses in there. We're just frustrated that we're not getting it done." Steve Pearce, who had a single to load the bases in the sixth inning, said the Orioles aren't frustrated. "No, we're still very relaxed," he said. "We're still having a good time. We won the last series. We'll just play the game tomorrow, and we can still tie the series. "It's very mental. You've got to just let the game play out. You try to do too much and bad stuff happens. You let the game play and try not to stress over those kinds of situations. You've just got to let it happen."