Cade Povich has reached a hurdle he hasn’t yet figured out how to cross.

The Orioles’ left-hander was off to a promising start to his outing against the Tigers on Tuesday, coming within one strike of completing five innings of two-run ball. But the heart of the Detroit lineup came up for the third time and rattled off four straight two-out hits to knock him out of the game and hand Baltimore a 5-3 loss.

“You get through three innings and then you give up a bunch of runs with two outs, I think anybody’s gonna be pretty pissed off,” said Povich, who was visibly frustrated with his performance and terse in his answers.

Povich has struggled mightily against opposing lineups when facing them a third time this season. He entered Tuesday’s game allowing a .702 OPS during the first turn of the lineup but that figure jumps to .826 the second time through and .953 when hitters got a third look at him. It’s a common snag in the development of young pitchers across the league and the biggest reason the 25-year-old walked off the mound with a 5.46 ERA on the season.

Detroit scraped together a pair of early runs off Povich on a sacrifice fly by right fielder Wenceel Pérez in the second and shortstop Javier Báez’s RBI single two innings later. Jackson Holliday singled, stole second base and scored on a line-drive single by Gunnar Henderson to show some life out of the Orioles’ lineup and that 2-1 score held until the fifth.

Povich retired the first two batters he faced and got ahead of left fielder Riley Greene in the count, 1-2, as he appeared poised to cruise through the inning. He already had six strikeouts in the game — continuing his trend of high punchout totals over the past month — and had a low enough pitch count in which he could have potentially gone back out for the sixth.

However, Greene fouled off three straight pitches before catching a hanging curveball and doubling to right field. Catcher Dillon Dingler scored him three pitches later with an RBI single and first baseman Spencer Torkelson cleared the bases on a 419-foot home run that Colton Cowser nearly robbed with a leaping attempt over the wall.

Third baseman Zach McKinstry then followed with a triple and interim manager Tony Mansolino went to the mound to pull Povich.

“Apparently not making good enough pitches,” Povich said of what led to the Tigers’ rally. “It’s soft is what it is.”

The Orioles’ offense tallied six hits and stranded six runners as Detroit (44-24), which sits firmly in first place of the American League Central, covered its nine innings with a bullpen game. The Tigers used five pitchers in the contest led by bulk arm Sawyer Gipson-Long, who allowed one run over 4 2/3 frames.

“That’s been something they’ve done for a majority of last year,” Henderson said of the Tigers opting for a bullpen game over a traditional starter. “But yeah, we faced them a lot, it seems like, in the past calendar year. So, yeah, I feel like we kind of expect it but it’s still tough when they do it every day.”

Baltimore (26-39) tacked on a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Adley Rutschman and had the chance to trim the lead further. Right-hander Tommy Kahnle relieved Gipson-Long with two outs and Henderson on second.

Ramón Laureano then worked a walk to bring up Ryan O’Hearn, one of the team’s only consistent producers with runners in scoring position this year, but he struck out swinging to end the threat. O’Hearn appeared to earn a walk on a 3-0 pitch that missed the zone, but home plate umpire Alex Tosi called the low-and-away changeup a strike.

Jordan Westburg, playing in his first game off the injured list after missing 38 games with a hamstring strain, lined a solo home run over the left field wall to chip away a little further, but it was too late as right-hander Will Vest retired the next three batters to lock down his team-high 11th save of the season.

“I liked the first at-bat, the ball he hit hard right at the second baseman,” Mansolino said. “When I saw that, that’s Jordan Westburg. When he’s flying off the ball and hooking stuff and out in front and breaking posture, that’s not Jordan. But the guy that hits a bolt right at the second baseman, first at-bat, it’s a really good feeling watching that. And I think those are the types of at-bats that lead to the home run later in the game.”

Postgame analysis: Holliday is getting an opportunity afforded to very few players his age.

Despite reinstating Westburg and Cedric Mullins from the injured list Tuesday and activating Cowser as well last week, the Orioles stuck with Holliday in the leadoff spot with a left-handed opener on the mound. He scored two of the Orioles’ three runs in the game and finished 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base.

It marked the 28th time this season Holliday has hit leadoff, tied for the fifth-most games in the No. 1 spot by any player 21 or younger since 2020. The only players with more over that span are some of the best young stars in the game: Fernando Tatís Jr. (92), Greene (75), Julio Rodríguez (58) and Jackson Chuorio (57).

Mansolino has hinted at the Orioles moving him down in the order once some of their recently returned stars get settled, but the way Holliday is hitting they might have to just ride him out until he slows down.

What they’re saying: Mansolino on whether he’s seen progress from Povich:

“I feel like consistency right now, right? I feel like you see him in Seattle and how he handled Seattle, which is a lineup that was swinging the bat really good, and it helps you dream on him a little bit and you feel good about him going into it. You see the two quick outs three of the five innings against a pretty tough lineup and you feel good about him. He just couldn’t kind of slow down the damage once it started. It happened really fast tonight, and that was probably the story of the game.”

By the numbers: Luck once again wasn’t on Rutschman’s side Tuesday as he went 0-for-3 at the plate. He hit a 106.3 mph line drive with a .590 expected batting average to right field that was caught in the sixth and his sacrifice fly in the eighth would’ve been a home run in 19 of 30 MLB ballparks. Rutschman entered play Tuesday with a .481 expected slugging percentage by Statcast’s estimation, 107 points higher than his actual figure.

On deck: With reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal scheduled to pitch in the series finale Thursday, the pressure is on the Orioles to shake this game off and bounce back Wednesday to avoid a potential sweep. Zach Eflin is slated to pitch for Baltimore while Casey Mize is the Tigers’ probable starter.

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