Tough luck loser.

Rick Porcello threw six innings of seven hit, three run ball—good enough for a quality start but not good enough for a notch in the win column, as the offense pulled a disappearing act for most of the game.

Porcello made one “mistake,” really, and it wasn’t even a bad pitch. The Orioles’ Chris Davis hit a two seamer away for an opposite field three-run homer to give Baltimore the late 3-0 lead. The Orioles never looked back, although the Tigers attempted an uprising in the eighth that came to a sad end when Jhonny Peralta needlessly gave himself up trying to get into second base on his two RBI single. The Tigers didn’t threaten again after that, as they went meekly in the ninth inning against closer Jim Johnson.

More on this game after the cut

Porcello, in spite of the final result, was actually quite good. His four-seamer and two-seamer looked good—Porcello threw a few beautiful swingback fastballs—and his secondary stuff was also solid. Porcello threw both his slider and his curveball tonight, and his slider was particularly effective as it generated whiffs 35.71% of the time. Porcello, who is not known as a strikeout pitcher, struck out six batters in his six innings of work.

Brayan Villarreal, Phil Coke and Octavio Dotel all turned in solid relief performances, which was encouraging, especially when it comes to Villarreal, who’s coming off a sore arm, and Coke, who has been struggling mightily in the second half. Coke gave up one hit in his inning of work, on a hanging breaking ball, but looked much better than he has in recent outings. Villarreal was again solid, and Dotel turned in a good performance as well.

Now, onto the bullet points: