OAKLAND, CALIF. — The three starting pitchers the Oakland Athletics have sent to the mound to face the Orioles this week haven't been Cy Young Award candidates, but the Baltimore bats have had few answers for them nonetheless.

The latest unheralded arm to shut down the Orioles was left-handed retread Ross Detwiler, who pitched eight scoreless innings Wednesday night while making his first start for Oakland after three weeks in Triple-A.

With their 1-0 loss to the A's and the Toronto Blue Jays' 7-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Orioles (63-50) fell a game out of first place in the American League East, a perch they've held for 109 of 130 days this season.

Also, after dropping the first three games of their four-game series at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum — each by one run — the Orioles have lost their eighth series in their past 10 trips to Oakland. They are 10-19 against the American League West this season and nine games under .500 on the road (24-33).

Against an Oakland team that opened the night 161/2 games out of first place, the Orioles have scored just three runs in three games and have scored three runs or fewer in 11 of their past 16.

The offensive drought comes at an inopportune time as the starting rotation has had six straight quality starts with little to show for it.

Right-hander Yovani Gallardo (4-4) gave up just one run in six innings, holding the Athletics to six base runners on four hits and two walks while striking out six.

The Orioles were frustrated by sinkerballers Kendall Graveman and Zach Neal the first two nights in Oakland, but they made hard contact against Detwiler — who entered with a 7.14 ERA over his past two major league seasons — but couldn't score.

Detwiler, who threw 108 pitches, held the Orioles to six hits and ended his outing by retiring 12 straight. The Orioles left five runners on base against him, including three in scoring position.

Oakland right-hander John Axford stranded the potential tying run on first base in the ninth inning for his second save.

Overturned call hurts O's: Adam Jones was initially called safe on a close play at the plate in the first inning on J.J. Hardy's double to right field, momentarily giving the Orioles a 1-0 lead. But the call was overturned after an Oakland challenge.

Jones, who opened the game with a leadoff single and moved to second on a wild pitch, got a late break on Hardy's hit. While it initially appeared that his slide beat catcher Bruce Maxwell's sweep tag, replays showed Jones' lead foot was in the air and never touched the plate.

The Orioles had two opportunities to drive in Hardy, but didn't, ending the inning with back-to-back groundouts by Manny Machado and Mark Trumbo.

Gallardo grooving in loss: Gallardo has quietly pitched well over his past four starts, with three quality starts, but hasn't had much to show for it, going 1-2.

With the exception of a third-inning run that came as a result of back-to-back two-out doubles by Marcus Semien and Yonder Alonso, Gallardo held the Athletics in check. After a one-out walk to Jake Smolinski in the fourth, Gallardo retired eight of the final nine batters he faced.

Gallardo has allowed two runs or fewer in three of his past four starts.

Davis responds in six hole: First baseman Chris Davis, who entered the night in a 9-for-76 slump since the All-Star break, was dropped to the sixth spot in the batting order from his usual cleanup spot and singled in his first two at-bats.

It was Davis' third multihit game in 23 games since the break.

Davis singled to right field through the shift in his first at-bat in the second inning, then hit an infield single in the fourth on a ball that found its way between two defenders in the shift.

eencina@baltsun.com

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