If there's anything more annoying than the home team losing, it's losing tight games -- on the West Coast no less.

The Orioles have fallen into a distressing pattern of pitch good-hit bad and less frequently, hit good-pitch bad.  For the most part, it's been pretty much the former, meaning solid work from the guys on the mound but no support from the offense.

Last night in a 2-1 10-inning loss to Oakland, a good outing by Baltimore starter Garrett Olson went for naught as the Orioles trailed 1-0 going into the top of ninth.  They finally scratched out a run to tie the game but after Jim Johnson worked out of trouble in the bottom of the ninth, the O's couldn't get anything going in the top of the 10th and Johnson gave up a hit-walk-hit with two out in the bottom of the inning to end it.

The Orioles' three-game losing streak has them at .500 for the first time since the second game of the season.  The three losses have come by a combined four runs.  And as Sun Orioles beat writer Jeff Zrebiec points out, the O's have scored two or fewer earned runs in four of their last six games.

Actually, this kind of thing was not unexpected.  Hitting figured to be a problem going into the season.  Although the Tejada trade may work out just fine, the Orioles really didn't replace his bat in the lineup.  Even though the rapidly aging shortstop -- just a little ESPN humor there -- had an off-year last season, he's currently hitting .349 with five homers and 25 RBIs.  The hope for the Orioles is that the trade will still be paying dividends for them when Miggie's birth certificate catches up with him.