masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgWei-Yin Chen gave the Orioles a seventh consecutive quality start tonight.

It was wasted by an offense that couldn’t do much against Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson and three relievers.

“He was good, real good,” manager Buck Showalter said following the Orioles’ 3-1 loss. “Deserved a little bit better fate. Their guy was real good, too. Wei-Yin was good again. He’s been solid. He had good stuff tonight. The balk call hurt him. Probably cost him another inning.”

Oh yes, the balk…Wei-Yin Chen gave the Orioles a seventh consecutive quality start tonight.

It was wasted by an offense that couldn’t do much against Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson and three relievers.

“He was good, real good,” manager Buck Showalter said following the Orioles’ 3-1 loss. “Deserved a little bit better fate. Their guy was real good, too. Wei-Yin was good again. He’s been solid. He had good stuff tonight. The balk call hurt him. Probably cost him another inning.”

Oh yes, the balk call.

Chen let his frustration show in the sixth, and B.J. Upton eventually scored.

“I thought he held it pretty good after the fact,” Showalter said. “I think everybody was (frustrated). He’s competitive. I think some people miss that about him. This guy likes to compete. He really likes to win.

“He was wiping his hand on his leg. Three guys saw it and one guy just over-umpired it and called it a balk.”

First time I’ve heard the term “over-umpired.”

As for Hellickson, Showalter said, “Changeup. It always plays, other than a well-located fastball. He’s a young pitcher who has a grasp of his changeup, has command of a changeup. It’s one of the things we like so much about (Kevin) Gausman. At a young age, when you’re able to do that with a changeup…

“It’s one of those pitches like (Fernando) Rodney and him both. They have great command and great presentation of the changeup. Big arm speed, same delivery every time and he’s got command of the curveball. And tonight, he had some of that working. He didn’t make may mistakes.”

The rotation is on a roll with the succession of quality starts, but the bats are still.

“You’d like to take advantage of them,” Showalter said. “We had three hits tonight. And try to give their guy credit. It’s not the first time he’s pitched real well at this level. It’s one of the things they’ve been pretty consistent with starting-wise. You’re going to face good pitchers up here. We’ve done a good job of scratching across some runs and have pitching make it matter.”