HOUSTON _ It's far too soon to dismiss the possibility of the Chris Tillman of old returning to the Orioles' starting rotation, but his regular-season debut bore more signs of last year's disaster of a season than the previous four in which Tillman was the unit's anchor.
Tillman lasted just one batter into the fifth inning in the Orioles' 6-1 loss to the Houston Astros on Monday night. He allowed four runs _ three in a fourth inning that included three hits that came off the bat at 95 mph or faster.
The Orioles offense wasn't void of blame. The Orioles scored just one run _ Trey Mancini's homer to open the top of the ninth off Collin McHugh _ and before that had gone 17 straight innings without scoring a run.
Over the past three games, the Orioles have been outscored 19-3.
Tillman battled with his control. He walked four batters _ and even though none of those four baserunners ended up scoring _ he was all over the zone. Tillman threw just eight of 23 first-pitch strikes.
And the Astros didn't miss many pitches that Tillman threw in the zone. Tillman recorded just two swing and misses in his 84-pitch outing.
Tillman recovered from what could have been a disastrous first inning after falling behind 1-0 four pitches into the game when George Springer and Alex Bregman opened the frame with back-to-back doubles.
After a wild pitch, shortstop Manny Machado made a savvy play on Jose Altuve's grounder, catching Bregman off third to erase the lead runner, a play that helped Tillman escape further damage in the opening frame
In the third, Tillman hung a 3-1 four-seam fastball that Marwin Gonzalez took over the right-field fence. Two batters later, Brian McCann just missed a home run that hit off the top of Minute Maid Park's high left-field fence and settled for a long single. Derek Fisher then tagged a 0-1 changeup into the right-center field gap to score McCann. Springer's RBI single made it 4-0.
The Orioles' offense has disappeared over the past three games, and even though the club has faced quality pitching over that stretch, the Orioles are beginning to look too much like last year's version.
Since the Orioles' 11-inning walk-off win on Opening Day, they haven't held a lead. They've scored two runs over a span of 27 innings, and after their 4-0 loss to the Houston Astros on Monday night, they had gone 18 innings without a run.
The Orioles (1-4) managed just three hits of Astros starter Charlie Morton over six shutout innings.
Since Dylan Bundy's seven shutout innings on Opening Day, Orioles starters having don't beyond five outings in any of the last three games. In fact, both Kevin Gausman and Tillman failed to record an out in the fifth.
Over the past three games, Orioles starters have allowed 15 runs in 13 innings.
