BALTIMORE _ Although not officially, the tone of this Orioles season has taken a turn to the future.
The Orioles entered Tuesday night's game against the Boston Red Sox closer to the American League East cellar (2{ games) than the second and final AL wild-card spot (5{ games) with 11 games left in the regular season. While it would take a wild scenario to get them back into the postseason race, they'd still like to finish the season respectably.
But Tuesday's 1-0 loss in 11 innings to the division-leading Red Sox _ their second straight defeat in extra innings against Boston _ was another in a series of recent gut punches.
The Orioles (73-79) couldn't capitalize on one of their top starting pitching performances of the season _ right-hander Kevin Gausman allowed just four base runners over eight shutout innings _ as the night's only run was scored on a wild pitch by Brad Brach with two outs and the bases loaded in the 11th.
After losing 11 of their past 13 games, the Orioles must now finish the season 8-2 to avoid the franchise's first losing season since 2011.
Working his second inning of relief, Brach couldn't find the plate, issuing back-to-back two-out walks after the inning opened with an infield single.
The Red Sox scored the game's only run without hitting a ball out of the infield when Brach's first pitch to Mitch Moreland skipped in front of catcher Welington Castillo and high into the air, enabling Jackie Bradley Jr. to score.
The Orioles put the tying run at second base with two outs in the bottom of the 11th when Adam Jones reached on Rafael Devers' two-base throwing error, but Trey Mancini grounded out back to the mound, ending the game.
Gausman took a no-hit bid into the fifth inning, retiring the first 14 batters he faced before allowing a two-out single by Devers in the fifth.
Overall, Gausman retired 23 of the 27 batters he faced, allowing only three singles and a walk.
Gausman ran into his most trouble in the sixth, giving up a two-out single to Xander Bogaerts, then walking Andrew Benintendi, but he escaped the inning with a 6-3 groundout from Mookie Betts.
He pitched effectively with his fastball, keeping the pitch on the outer part of the plate against Boston's left-handed-heavy lineup, mixing it well with a splitter that drew swing and misses early. Lefties were just 1 for 14 against him on the night.
Gausman recorded seven strikeouts _ most of them coming in the early innings _ before lasting late into the game by pitching to contact. Five of Gausman's seven strikeouts were swinging, and four of those came on his splitter.
He walked off the mound to an ovation from the announced Camden Yards crowd of 21,449 after receiving a key double-play ball off the bat of Bradley.
Gausman has now allowed one or fewer runs in four of his last five starts, posting a 2.25 ERA over that span. He also owns a 3.09 ERA in 12 second-half starts, which is the eighth best among AL qualified starters in that span.
Gausman, who likely has two more starts left this season, has now made a major league-leading 32 starts and at 1752/3 innings is just four innings shy of last year's career high.
Orioles first baseman Chris Davis was robbed of a home run to lead off the fifth inning when his fly ball to right-center field was pulled back into the yard by Bradley.
Bradley, one of the league's top defensive center fielders, made the catch almost look too easy, casually running toward the wall and mid-strike jumping up against the fence to snag Davis' drive out of the air and back into the field of play.
The catch made Davis just 8 for 55 (a .140 average) in September. He has just two homers and three RBIs this month.
The Orioles didn't have many scoring opportunities throughout the game, but went into the ninth inning shut out by Red Sox pitching.
They had two chances to break through against Boston left-hander Drew Pomeranz. In the second inning, Manny Machado attempted to score from second on Jonathan Schoop's single to left, but was thrown out at home by Andrew Benintendi.
The Orioles also put runners at the corners with two outs on the sixth, but Mark Trumbo struck out to end that threat.
Right-hander Darren O'Day worked through a one-out double by Benintendi to pitch a scoreless top of the ninth inning in relief of Gausman.
Facing the top of the Red Sox batting order Benintendi's double to right field was sandwiched by three fly-ball outs for O'Day's fifth straight scoreless outing and 11th of his last 12.
