PHILADELPHIA -- A sometimes baffling and often frustrating Phillies season continues.

The Phils opened their final homestand of the season on Monday night at Citizens Bank Park with a 2-0 loss to the Orioles. They’ll play two more games against the Orioles (48-102), who have the worst record in baseball. They will play four against the Pirates (56-94), who have the second-worst record in the National League. Those two teams in the same late-September homestand should be considered a gift from the schedule-makers as the Phillies try to catch the Braves in the National League East, but the Phillies have lost to teams like this over the past several weeks.

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Monday’s loss drops the Phillies (76-74) three games behind the Braves (78-70) with 12 games to play. If the Braves finish 7-7 for an 85-win season, the Phillies will need to finish 9-3 just to tie.

“It’s frustrating,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s not how you want to start the homestand, but it doesn’t tell the whole story, you know? We have to turn it around, and let’s see what happens the rest of the week.”

How did the Phillies lose to the Orioles, who allowed 44 runs in a span of 23 innings against the Blue Jays a little more than a week ago? Orioles left-hander John Means allowed four hits in 6 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out six and walking one.

Means walked Bryce Harper with two outs in the first inning. He allowed a single to Andrew McCutchen to lead off the second.

He then retired the next 13 batters he faced.

Means, who threw a no-hitter on May 5, is the Orioles’ best pitcher. In fact, he has been their second-best player behind center fielder Cedric Mullins, who did not play on Monday because Baltimore wanted to give him the night off.

“I think we’re capable of scoring runs off him,” Girardi said about Means. “It’s not like he has a zero ERA. … I thought he threw a good game. He seems to be able to throw all his pitches over. He seems to give you a different look every time. His changeup gave us some trouble tonight. His changeup is a little different than what you see from a left-hander’s changeup. It kind of stays on the same plane. It doesn’t dive like most changeups do. When we did hit balls hard, they were standing in the right spot. He was good. I thought once we got him out that maybe we’d have a chance. We just weren’t able to come up with a big hit.”

Harper flied out to the warning track in center field to start the ninth. He finished 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Harper has been held hitless in back-to-back games for the first time since August 18-19.

Ranger Suárez allowed two runs on four singles in the first inning to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead. Suárez stepped onto the mound with a 1.50 ERA in 84 innings this season, becoming the first Phillies pitcher to have a 1.50 ERA or better in as many innings since John Denny’s 1.45 ERA in 99 1/3 innings in his NL Cy Young Award season in 1983. Suárez and Grover Cleveland Alexander (1.22 ERA) were the only Phillies pitchers since 1912 to post a 1.50 ERA or better with at least 80 innings and at least one start.

But Suárez recovered. He did not allow a run over his next five innings as he threw a career-high 102 pitches.

Ultimately, it did not matter because the offense could not hit Means or the Orioles’ bullpen.

“Every time we take the field, we want to win a game,” Suárez said through the team’s interpreter. “So it’s always frustrating when you lose a game. It doesn’t matter who we lose against. It doesn’t matter if it’s early in the season or if it’s late in the season or what’s at stake. The only thing we can do now is hope to get a win tomorrow.”