Orioles rally in seventh to continue mastery over Tigers, 7-4

Detroit — The Tigers certainly had their chances Thursday, in one of the most frustrating losses a team can endure.

The Tigers left a staggering 15 runners on base in a 7-4 loss to Baltimore in which they led late, but ultimately suffered a fourth consecutive loss to the Orioles in less than a full week.

After playing good baseball and winning a series in Milwaukee, this loss stung.

"It's frustrating," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. "You could look at it a couple of ways but in reality we couldn't come up with the right hit at the right time and change the game."

The Tigers loaded the bases against Orioles reliever Felix Bautista in the ninth inning. But Bautista struck out Jonathan Schoop and Jake Rogers to end the threat, and the game.

The Tigers threatened against the Orioles bullpen, but never could muster a key hit to change the complexion of the game.

"We have to keep swinging the bat," said Eric Haase, who had two hits and drove in two runs. "We had some good at bats and made some good adjustments against (Orioles starter Kyle) Gibson. We left him off the hook in his place (last week) and he settled in nicely. He was elusive. We turned it around and did a much better job.

"We had their (bull)pen in some sticky situations but didn't pull through."

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Baltimore hit for the cycle while scoring five runs off relief pitcher Chasen Shreve in the seventh inning, erasing a 4-2 Tigers lead.

Adam Frazier singled to open the Orioles rally, and Ryan McKenna doubled, advancing Frazier to third. After Joey Oritz' sacrifice fly, Cedric Mullins tripled into the right-field corner, tying the score 4-4. Mullins scored, breaking the tie, on Adley Rutschman's sacrifice fly.

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After Shreve walked Ryan Mountcastle with two outs, Anthony Santander gave the Orioles a three-run cushion with his second home run of the season.

"We played well tonight, (but) my inning got away and I let the boys down," Shreve said. "Just a bad day."

Hinch agreed that the inning got away from Shreve, who appeared to be making the pitches he wanted to make - only to have the Orioles make some timely swings.

"It looked like he missed on some pitches and they didn't miss when he missed," Hinch said.

Starting pitcher Joey Wentz, who struggled in a loss to the Orioles last weekend, had a different sort of evening this time around.

Wentz allowed four hits and two runs over 5.2 innings, walking one and striking out six. Wentz allowed a two-run single to Ortiz (first major-league hit in his first game) in the fifth inning but averted further damage, getting Mullins to fly to center field to end the inning.

"I threw strike one for the most part and was able to land some curveballs in there," Wentz said. "Better change-ups, and felt better about all my pitches. We had two guys make real good plays out there for me too, and that helps out a lot."

It's not easy facing a team twice in less than a week. But Hinch felt Wentz held his own.

"His stuff was pretty good, and he was pretty efficient," Hinch said. "I loved the way he commanded the at-bats for the most part."

Zach McKinstry, Kerry Carpenter and Haase each had two hits, and Haase drove in two runs with a single in the third inning.

Haase singled to open the second inning and came around to score on Jonathan Schoop's double play with the bases loaded and no outs. McKinstry popped out to first base to end the inning.

The Tigers added a run in the sixth, extending the lead to 4-2, as Nick Maton walked with the bases loaded. But Tyler Nevin, replacing the injured Carpenter (who slammed into the outfield wall), struck out to end the rally.

Carpenter took away a possible home run but hurt his right shoulder in the process. Hinch had no update on Carpenter's condition after the game.

"I saw he (Carpenter) was tracking it and obviously it was an incredible play," Wentz said. "I kind of took a deep breath because I thought it was gone. He brought it back."

Gibson handled the Tigers fairly easily last weekend, but Thursday didn't get out of the fifth inning. The Tigers had eight hits and scored three runs off Gibson, who threw 102 pitches in the process.

The Tigers dropped to 9-15 on the season, with three more games against the Orioles this weekend.

"We have to keep giving ourselves opportunities," Haase said. "We swung the bat a lot better in Milwaukee then in Baltimore. We left a lot of guys on base, the opportunities were there. We have to refine our approach."

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tkulfan