MINNEAPOLIS — The ingredients for an Orioles win were right there in front of them.

Dean Kremer was stellar again, the lineup generated plenty of traffic on the basepaths and they played clean defense.

All the Orioles needed to do was take advantage of one of their many chances to drive in a couple of runners and salvage a win in their series with the Minnesota Twins.

Instead, missed opportunities loomed large Thursday afternoon as the Orioles lost, 5-2, on an eighth-inning rally by the Twins against relievers Yennier Cano and Gregory Soto.

“Did everything he could,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Kremer. “That’s back-to-back games of throwing the ball just absolutely outstanding. Should never have gotten to that point. Just offensively, we wasted, squandered so many opportunities that the game should have been out of hand early.”

Kremer was brilliant for the second straight outing, pitching seven innings of two-run ball with a season-high eight strikeouts. Baltimore (13-23) also amassed double-digit hits for the second game in a row but finished 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine base runners.

“Definitely haven’t been the best and that’s part of baseball,” outfielder Heston Kjerstad (0-for-4, three strikeouts) said of the team’s struggles with runners in scoring position. “But also, I think there’s maybe an approach change for some of us. I think there’s a lot of us trying too hard. I would speak for myself mostly, sometimes with runners in scoring position, I tend to try to do too much when you just need to dial it back and just put a ball in play and something will happen.”

The loss extended the Orioles’ losing streak to five straight games, their longest skid since dropping five in a row in July last season. They also fell to 10 games below .500 for the first time in nearly three years — June 15, 2022.

Baltimore’s lineup put itself in position for a big afternoon. It got at least one runner into scoring position in every inning from the second through the sixth. Emmanuel Rivera enjoyed a three-hit day. Eight of the team’s nine starting position players reached base, including Coby Mayo picking up his first hit of the season on a 109.3 mph single and Maverick Handley recording the first hit of his MLB career with a single of his own.

Yet the Orioles only managed to push two runs across. Rivera drove in one with the first of his two doubles in the second inning and Ryan Mountcastle brought an unearned run home on a sacrifice fly the next frame. Every other scoring opportunity resulted in a dud, each more frustrating than the last.

“I don’t know. Sometimes we’re hitting it hard and getting out and sometimes not doing our job,” Mountcastle said. “It’s tough. It’s something we need to improve on, and hopefully we can coming up this next series.”

Twins starter Bailey Ober struck Handley and Gunnar Henderson back-to-back, spoiling a two-on, one-out situation in the second. Kjerstad and Mayo had consecutive strikeouts with runners on second and third in the third. In the fourth, Henderson struck out and Jackson Holliday grounded into a double play after the first two batters in the frame reached. They put runners on second and third with no outs in the fifth and went down in order from there.

A bad break might have cost the Orioles a run in the sixth, when Rivera was thrown out at home by center fielder Byron Buxton after he tried to score from second on a single by Henderson (1-for-5, two strikeouts). Hyde challenged the call at home and Rivera’s hand looked like it might have snuck underneath the tag of Twins catcher Christian Vázquez, but replay review upheld the call.

Unable to pull away, the Orioles left plenty of room for the Twins to erase their slim 2-1 deficit. Kremer settled in after allowing a first-inning run on an RBI single by first baseman Ty France and was cruising until designated hitter Trevor Larnach took him deep for a solo home run to tie the game in the sixth.

“I learned a few years ago that no matter what the offense is doing, whether they’re putting up 10 spots or goose eggs, it really doesn’t matter,” Kremer said. “It shouldn’t affect how I’m pitching and how aggressive I am toward a lineup or certain batters or whatever. I’ve removed myself kind of from the dugout, or I’ll just sit in some little corner whether it’s in the tunnel or just somewhere so I’m not like, ‘Oh, please get a hit, please get a hit,’ like, ‘Oh, I just gave up a run, we need to come back.’ So, trying to eliminate any sort of exterior.”

The decisive blow then came at the hands of second baseman Brooks Lee, who hit a two-run double off Soto in the eighth to give Minnesota the lead for good. Two runs were charged to Cano after he walked two earlier in the frame.

Postgame analysis: Kremer has seemingly put his rough April behind him with two straight impressive outings in which he completed seven innings. He’s started to look much more like the pitcher who finished last season with a 2.98 ERA over his final eight starts, which would be a boost for the Orioles if he can continue that the rest of the season.

With Kremer and Tomoyuki Sugano pitching well and Zach Eflin tentatively returning from the injured list this weekend, the Orioles’ rotation is suddenly not looking like the biggest problem on their roster anymore. They’re still looking for more consistency from Cade Povich, and Kyle Gibson didn’t pitch past the fourth inning in either of his first two starts, but the offense isn’t producing enough to give them a chance anyway.

Quick returns for Tyler O’Neill, Jordan Westburg and Ramón Urías should help, but the Orioles’ hitting problem has started to become much more glaring.

By the numbers: The Orioles are now 48-for-252 (.190) with runners in scoring position this season, giving them the fewest hits and lowest batting average in those situations in MLB.

What they’re saying: Hyde on how the Orioles are addressing their shortcomings with runners in scoring position in hitters meetings: “They’re talking about it a lot. We try to slow the game down for them and try to put them in situations. Just having a tough time performing in those situations for a while now.”

On deck: The Orioles continue their road trip with a three-game series in Anaheim, California, where they will take on the Mike Trout-less Los Angeles Angels. Sugano is scheduled to get the start for Baltimore in the series opener, followed by Kyle Gibson on Saturday and, assuming no setbacks, Eflin on Sunday.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Weyrich at mweyrich @baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/ByMattWeyrichand instagram.com/bymattweyrich.