After Monday’s undressing by the Rays, Orioles rookie skipper Craig Albernaz, who has seen his share of baseball dystopia not even 50 games into his MLB managing career, tried to pretend that “every loss is the same.”Judging by the bewildered look on his face as he uttered the words, after 16-6 defeat, Albernaz himself didn’t seem to believe what was coming out of his mouth. And, across the board, Tuesday’s, 4-1, loss at Tampa looked and felt quite different. Not sure if it smelled different, but it stung deep with this spiraling ballclub excelling at finding ways to lose.The O’s couldn’t compete with Tampa in any facet of play in the series opener, from the first inning on. This time the starting pitching was markedly improved, but they once again could not get a shutdown inning when they needed it and the bats came up limp (four hits; nine strikeouts) – a constant occurrence. They are a pretender. They were always going to be a pretender.The hole is getting pretty deep here again in Birdland. The O’s are now a season-low 21-28 (7-15 vs winning teams), and 3-9 in the AL East heading into the finale Wednesday afternoon (but the Rays head to Baltimore next week, gulp). The Rays, thin on talent and thump but loaded with heart and baseball IQ, are an improbable 32-15 and the Orioles odds of catching either them or the Yankees are slimmer than baseball czar Mike Elias developing a homegrown starter.Any Good News?On the bright side, Kyle Bradish strung together a third-straight competent start, and remains the only dependable entity in this rotation. The Rays worked him over in the first, seeing an astounding 27 pitches after registering two outs. A walk to Jonathan Arnada came back to bite Bradish, who quicky surrendered the lead Taylor Ward gave him with a solo shot two pitches into the game (just his second of the year) on Yandy Diaz’s two-out double."I wasnt worried about it after that first inning," Bradish said of putting his early struggles behind him. And when Bradish noted of the Rays, "unlike a lot of teams, they're fine taking a single the other way.," it was hard not to think his own lineup (infatuated with launch angle per Elias's request) was on his mind.This Orioles staff on the whole struggles to do the job with two strikes and with two outs, so that part felt like Monday night all over again. But the similarities ended there. Diaz, however, remained their nemesis - he sliced them up with four hits in the opener and he provided the lead Tuesday, destroying a ball 440 feet to center to open the sixth. Bradish recorded 16 outs, and ran his two-seamer in on righties effectively again, but the three walks and lack of pitch efficiency curtailed his length."He did a great job of settling in and giving us a chance to win," Albernaz said.The Orioles could do nothing outside of Ward’s blast against converted relieved Griffin Jax – the Rays are always innovating and creating pleasant surprises; the exact opposite of Elias. He dominated the lefty bats with his offspeed stuff."His change up is devastating," Albernaz noted, something you don't hear very often when he's asked about his own starters. Jax struck out six and walked just one. The Rays bullpen – traditionally a strength – has been their underbelly this season (I mean, does a teaming winning two of every three really have an underbelly). But they took care of the final four innings to make Diaz’s homer stand up. Tampa added two-out insurance runs when Colton Cowser, who Elias tried to pretend could be an everyday centerfielder (maybe he meant Norfolk?), couldn’t handle a line drive in right field.Former O’s reliever Bryan Baker closed out the ninth, performing like an All Star this season and one of a legion of fringe players reinvigorated by Tampa’s superior player development strata. That’s yet another trade the Rays will have won from Elias. They don’t just thump him in the standings and head-to-head. They crush him in transactions.Bird SeedJackson Holliday made his season debut returning from a broken bone in his hand suffered preparing for spring training. He started at second base and went 0-for-2 before being pinch hit for … Ex Oriole Cedric Mullins faced his former team after being on the bench Monday and delivered a base hit … Rookie catcher Sam Basallo continues to make big strides behind the plate and his plus-plus arm was on display, throwing out speed demon Chandler Simpson clean at second base with a foot to spare . He also had a critical challenge to help Bradish survive the first inning… Cowser has played more lately, and he still looks AAA bound if this was a serious front office. He’s batting .176 with a .503 OPS, with 33 strikeouts in 98 plate appearances.Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Orioles Coverage:Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow