DETROIT — The gravitational pull that has locked itself upon the Orioles during this tumble toward Earth has been unrelenting, and the free fall for a club that entered the year with sky-high expectations sped to a new low Sunday.

Little else could be expected, not when the Detroit Tigers trotted out left-hander Tarik Skubal and Baltimore deployed a lineup missing three regulars. The Orioles, who have struggled against southpaws even when fully healthy, were toothless against the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.

Before the game, the visiting training room at Comerica Park was full of Orioles dealing with knocks. Outfielder Tyler O’Neill, who joined the injured list Saturday, has neck inflammation. Catcher Adley Rutschman has a sore and swollen right hand. Infielder Jordan Westburg nursed a sore hamstring. Outfielder Cedric Mullins attempted to recover from a dayslong illness, especially after playing all 18 innings of a doubleheader.

That left Baltimore short on several fronts. With the way the Orioles have produced of late, it might not have made much difference against Skubal. The 7-0 loss to the Tigers delivered Baltimore its first series sweep of the year, and it dropped the Orioles to seven games below .500 (10-17) for the first time since July 4, 2022.

This feels like a lower point than the last time Baltimore had a record similar to this one. In 2022, the Orioles were still waiting to break out from a rebuild that had sapped much of the excitement from the city. Now the Orioles are on the other side — or, at least, they’re supposed to be.

But Sunday marked one full week of poor play, a full week of walked batters and short starts, a full week of hapless hitting with runners in scoring position. Baltimore has lost six of its last seven games, and the spiral only hastens.

“Pretty much, yeah,” manager Brandon Hyde said when asked whether this could be considered one of the most difficult stretches of his seven-year tenure. “We had three guys hurt today. We’re not playing the best baseball right now, and we’re walking too many guys on the mound. It’s been rough.”

Baltimore’s 10-17 record is the third-worst mark in baseball, ahead of only the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox.

After right-hander Dean Kremer allowed five runs in 5 2/3 innings Sunday, the Orioles’ main pitchers — Brandon Young and Charlie Morton (Morton entered as a bulk reliever rather than starter) — allowed a combined 11 runs with 14 walks in 14 innings in three losses to the Tigers.

Meanwhile, the lineup has stranded 54 runners on base and is hitting 6-for-60 (.100) with runners in scoring position in the past seven games. That included an 0-for-9 record against Skubal and the rest of Detroit’s pitchers to close out the series.

The Orioles got on base. Twice they had a runner on third against Skubal, and twice Skubal stranded him there. He struck out Gunnar Henderson to end the third inning with a 99.5-mph fastball and punched out Heston Kjerstad to close the fourth with a down-and-in changeup. Both pitches were filthy, showcasing Skubal’s skill.

“That’s one of the best pitchers in baseball,” Hyde said. “Top two or three, if not No. 1. I thought we created some traffic against him. We just didn’t get a big hit.”

The Orioles maintain there isn’t a sense of panic in the clubhouse, and to be fair, panic would be a rather problematic emotion at this stage. Urgency, or attentiveness, would be fairer sentiments at the end of the first month.

“We want to get this turned around, and nobody in this clubhouse feels good about where we’re at,” pitching coach Drew French said. “But we’re fighting to be consistently good, and that’s in all three phases of the game. We haven’t done our part on the mound.”

That continued with Kremer, whose margin for error when dueling with Skubal was minuscule. The right-hander didn’t make it easier on himself when he walked two Tigers hitters in the second inning. That allowed Javier Báez’s double to left to score two, and that hole felt large enough.

It grew larger when another walk in the fifth turned into an RBI single from Gleyber Torres. And four more runs scored in the sixth and seventh innings, charged to Kremer and left-handers Cionel Pérez and Grant Wolfram.

“Every night, box scores aren’t going in our favor,” Kremer said. “It’s tough to stay mentally engaged once things kind of start spiraling. But that’s the name of the job and being able to find our way out of that and keeping things positive. We have guys in the clubhouse who are plenty positive and try to pick us up. We’re going to be OK by the end of this.”

Hyde has watched more than his share of bad baseball. He oversaw this team through the rebuild, when lopsided defeats and 100-loss seasons were commonplace. Those feelings weren’t meant to return in 2025, but the issues are clear. It begins with the starting pitching, continues with the lack of hitting and, to a lesser degree, involves the bullpen and fielding.

Over the last week, those issues have plenty to do with the spinout suffered in Washington, D.C., and Detroit. And gravity doesn’t seem likely to release the Orioles from this tumble anytime soon.

“Yeah, it’s different, because we’re supposed to win now,” infielder Ramón Urías said of how this compares to losing streaks of old. “Obviously, it’s tough for everybody in this clubhouse, including the coaches and front office, I think. But, like I said, it’s on us. We’ve got to work on that and try to win tomorrow. That’s the best thing we can do.”

This article has been updated.