Two Orioles errors in 10th inning lead to 4-2 loss (with quotes)

A former reliever making the switch to starter and trying it at the major league level is going to arrive wrapped in uncertainty. Multiple layers of it.

The Orioles figured that Jimmy Yacabonis' ceiling today against the Mariners would be the fifth inning. They were prepared to begin passing the baton in the sixth with the few fresh arms at their disposal.

Yacabonis faced two batters in the fifth without recording an out, back-to-back singles ending his day at 67 pitches. Three innings were scoreless. One swing by former Oriole Nelson Cruz accounted for the two runs.

The first hand to reach for the baton proved the steadiest, but the Orioles lost their grip as the game moved past regulation.

Manny Machado and Chris Davis hit solo home runs in the fourth to tie the game and Yefry Ramirez worked five scoreless innings, but the defense committed two errors behind Miguel Castro in the 10th and the Orioles lost to the Mariners 4-2 before an announced crowd of 14,263 at Camden Yards.

Seattle secured its first four-game sweep in Baltimore and dropped the Orioles to 23-57 overall and 11-27 at home. Their losing streak has reached five games.

All four batters reached against Castro, beginning with Dee Gordon on a leadoff single. Jean Segura singled and Gordon raced home after Colby Rasmus booted the ball while trying to make the backhanded pickup. Rookie Steve Wilkerson's throwing error allowed Mitch Haniger to reach and Nelson Cruz followed with an RBI single before Tanner Scott came to the rescue.

Rasmus and Wilkerson were filling in for Adam Jones and Tim Beckham, respectively, who were rested today. But a rusted season never sleeps.

The Mariners improved to 8-0 in extras and the Orioles fell to 4-6. They've played 21 innings in the last two days.

Ramirez stranded the two inherited runners in the fifth, striking out Cruz and leaving Yacabonis with two runs and six hits over four-plus innings. The former 13th-round pick walked one batter, struck out five and threw a wild pitch.

Yacabonis' fastball was clocked in the 93-95 mph range and three of his strikeouts came via a low-80s slider.

Eighty-three pitches were the most thrown by Yacabonis this season at Triple-A Norfolk and it happened back on May 2. He needed only 10 today to retire the side in order in the first inning, getting a called third strike on Segura on a 95 mph fastball. Two strikeouts followed in the second while he stranded a runner, and nine pitchers were thrown in the third to leave him at 39.

Cruz missed the last two games with tightness in his lower back. He received treatment again this morning, made the lineup and took a 95 mph fastball to right-center field and barely out of Danny Valencia's leaping attempt at the grounds crew shed to give Seattle a 2-0 lead in the fourth.

A leadoff walk came back to haunt Yacabonis, as they so often do. But he showed some moxie by retiring three straight batters after Ben Gamel followed Cruz's home run with a double.

Andrew Romine and Gordon singled in the fifth and Yacabonis was gone, unsure whether he's headed back to Norfolk or staying with the Orioles. They could put him on the shuttle again because they'd rather keep him starting every fifth day and Monday's off-day again allows manager Buck Showalter to tinker.

Ramirez was making his second appearance in the majors and first as a reliever, a nice reversal from Yacabonis' situation. And he was outstanding with only three hits allowed, no walks and three strikeouts in five innings to carry the game into the 10th. He threw 52 pitches, 37 for strikes and retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced.

The Orioles considered him for today's start, but assumed that he'd be needed later to back up Yacabonis. Manager Buck Showalter wanted to hold David Hess for Friday night's start against the Angels.

Machado drove a knuckle-curve from Mike Leake an estimated 401 feet to left field and Davis carried a sinker an estimated 404 feet to left-center for his second home run in two games. He also went back-to-back May 8-9.

The game stayed tied until Ramirez stayed in the dugout.

Showalter on Yacabonis: "OK, you know? I thought under the circumstances he did a really good job. I thought he handled himself well and gave us a chance to win a game. Had that same issue. We scored two runs. And you knew there weren't going to be a lot of runs scored when you start ... 3 o'clock games, what you've got to do for getaway days. But after four or five innings, the reason why most of the runs are scored early is you can't see. But he was good and Yefry was just as good, maybe better.

"That was fun to watch those two kids pitch. Tanner had a good outing. Miguel is as young as all of them, maybe younger. I didn't really want to pitch him today if I could help it. Same way with Tanner. But I would have taken that and been real, real happy with it going into the game. Those two kids were impressive."

Showalter on whether Davis could carry team again: "I don't want to put that, you know ... yeah, sure. We know that Chris is capable of that, but since he's come back, he's been producing runs and that's what he's capable of doing. So I hope so. I thought he's had some good at-bats all the way through it since he's been back."

Showalter on Yacabonis and Ramirez allowing him to think positively about future: "Oh, sure. Made a decision to see if Yac could take to starting and so far he's been good. I was hoping to keep him around 70 today. He's been a little bit further, but kid's in the bullpen, not in the bullpen. It's been tough ... not tough, but the days kind of leading into this, we wanted to tell him as soon as we could last night. I thought he handled it well.

"I thought he was in command of himself and I think Yefry, sometimes the guys that have that type of changeup, it plays better the higher you go because people are in such swing mode up here and the hitters are better and the hitters want to swing, they want to hit. He's got a way to defend himself, so both of those guys, and Tanner. Tanner got back on the horse today and got some outs. Try to keep in mind the context that everything's done. It's a good start for him."

Showalter on what Orioles need to do to get to Mariners' level: "I don't want to hang it on one area. That's very easy to do. We're not scoring. We scored some runs yesterday and weren't able to do it out of the bullpen, obviously with Zach (Britton) kind of still finding his step here shortly. We've had to stretch a lot of people.

"I think the bullpen, making runs matter when we get ahead. We're just not scoring enough runs to think how much is enough. And every defensive lapse multiplies when you're going through that stage."

Showalter on whether he's able to view what's important beyond wins: "No, it's about winning the game, after nine innings, having more runs than them. I will and we will never stop looking at that, but within that realm, you should always be looking at that, too. You're always doing it. But I don't think anybody ever loses that competitive ...

"I don't like losing any games. It eats at you. But you should be doing those things all the time, because things are always evolving, especially in our situation compared to some of the people we compete against in this division."

Showalter on Rasmus' error: "It's another thing that guys like Gordon put such pressure on you, because you know any little bobble, anything, he's going to take another base. He's got a ground ball that probably 95 percent of the people are out on pretty easily. It's a base hit. You're trying to get the ball back in there. Where they are in the batting order is tough. That's why they're having a good year and winning some games, because of things like that.

"It's hard to duplicate that. You can't say, 'Well, we don't have it.' Well, a lot of teams don't have that. But they're a good team."