BALTIMORE -- The Rays’ frustrating three-city road trip came to a fitting end with a 2-1 loss to the Orioles on Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards.

• Box score

The storyline was the same as it had been for much of the past week. The Rays’ pitching was tremendous, with Corey Kluber delivering a quality start. Their pitching kept it close, as Sunday was their fifth straight one-run game and their sixth in a row decided by two runs or fewer. But their lineup went quiet when it mattered most. And they lost, as they did seven times during this nine-game swing through Minneapolis, New York and Baltimore.

“It's been a frustrating road trip,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve got to get back home and find some sort of rhythm.”

They didn’t find it against the Orioles, the same club they beat 18 times in 19 meetings last year. They are now just 5-4 against Baltimore this season, and Sunday’s defeat gave the Rays (36-30) back-to-back series losses against the Orioles for the first time since 2017.

Their “much-needed” offensive resurgence Saturday, when they scored seven runs on 14 hits, lasted only one day. The Rays out-hit the Orioles in the series finale, 9-4, but went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Their biggest missed opportunity came in the third, when they worked three two-out walks only for Randy Arozarena to go down swinging.

“I think the feeling is we're looking forward to getting back home to The Trop, in front of our home fans,” outfielder Brett Phillips said. “This is the big leagues. Every team you face, especially against us, is going to bring their best. And we saw their best this weekend.”

In a way, Baltimore beat Tampa Bay at its own game. The Orioles used seven relievers to get through the game after starter Jordan Lyles was scratched due to a stomach virus. Their defense took a few runs off the board; Phillips was cut down at the plate on a perfect second-inning relay, and Taylor Walls would have had a game-tying infield hit in the sixth if not for a diving effort by second baseman Rougned Odor.

It was reflective of a road trip when the Rays’ opponents were consistently just a little better -- slightly more effective on the mound, a bit more productive at the plate, less prone to critical mistakes in the field or on the bases.

“We're too good of a team to keep having results like this,” said Walls, who drove in the Rays’ lone run on a fourth-inning double. “We'll turn it around. We're a good ball team. Everybody in here knows that. Everybody believes in one another.”

The way they’ve been playing lately, their pitchers must be nearly perfect to win. Kluber wasn’t quite that on Sunday. The right-hander allowed a solo homer to Anthony Santander in the first inning, then Cedric Mullins doubled in another run in the third after Ryan McKenna reached on a comebacker that took a weird bounce off Kluber’s foot. But he pitched well enough to win, allowing only four hits and a walk while striking out six over six innings.

“Klubes was so good again for us, and it's just irritating, frustrating all at the same time not being able to help him out a little bit,” Cash said. “We swung the bats OK, but you've got to piece together some bigger innings than what we're doing here as of late.”

In his two starts on this trip, Kluber allowed two earned runs over 12 innings but lost both games. The even-keeled veteran preached the same patience as his coaches and teammates, believing the Rays will right the ship soon enough.

“Whether it's offensively or defensively, pitching-wise, the only way to get out of it is to continue to work and not bank on the fact that things are going to turn around,” said Kluber, who has a 2.61 ERA in his past seven starts. “But I think everybody knows that, throughout the course of a season, things will turn around.”

They’re hoping it happens soon, but it won’t come easy. When the Rays return to Tropicana Field on Monday, they’ll face the same Yankees team that just swept them in the Bronx. They’ll likely shake up their lineup a bit, potentially adding outfield prospect Josh Lowe to the mix again as MLB’s roster requirements force them to drop a pitcher for a position player by Monday. They could get star shortstop Wander Franco back from the injured list next weekend, too.

Whatever happens back home, their hitters were happy to put this road trip behind them.

“Disappointing, I guess, is probably the only word to describe it,” Walls said. “We're fighting, though. We're trying. That's the biggest thing: Every guy's coming in, doing their best. Sometimes that's just how the game is. We can't really sit here and pout about it. … As long as we keep getting runners on base, runners in scoring position, I feel like, with the guys in this locker room and the positivity and good teammates that we are, hits will start falling.”