ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Orioles have played two types of games this season. They have played tight games. And they have played games that are lost almost the minute they begin.

It wasn’t over in the first inning when starter Kyle Gibson allowed the first three Angels on base and two runs to score before getting his second out, but that familiar sinking feeling quickly took hold.

An early deficit. A muted response. The Orioles’ path to surrender has become so familiar that sometimes it feels the players themselves are merely following the script.

Gibson was rocked for the third time in as many starts with the club, and the Orioles (14-24) lost 5-2 to the Angels (16-22) Saturday night. The Orioles have lost six of their last seven games, failing to take advantage of a soft May schedule they hoped would accommodate a rise in the standings.

Although the team’s dire health situation is gradually improving, its response to in-game adversity is not. While Ryan Mountcastle’s RBI double in the sixth inning finally got the Orioles on the board against Anaheim starter Jack Kochanowicz, it was the fewest earned runs the second-year starter has given up all season.

“I thought we really expanded the zone against a starter who wasn’t showing he had command,” manager Brandon Hyde said disapprovingly. “Let him off the hook multiple times.”

The sixth frame could have been the Orioles’ redemptive moment, representing at least one turning point in a season that has seen them win only six comeback games. But, after Kochanowicz was taken out with two men on base and two outs, Cedric Mullins was called out on strikes in a matchup with reliever Hector Neris.

It was a microcosm of a Baltimore trend. The workhorses of the last three seasons have struggled to show up in big moments.

The Orioles missed opportunities to improve on their last-place batting average with runners in scoring position. In the third, Adley Rutschman (0-for-4) popped up with two aboard. In the fourth, Mullins (0-for-4) hit into an inning-ending double play. Mullins in particular is staring down an 0-for-19 stretch without a hit on the road trip.

“It’s hard,” Mullins said of the team’s anemic comeback efforts this year. “It’s one of those things where, one day, it could all of a sudden click and you’re looking back and you’re like, ‘Oh, we had those struggles and now we just figured it out.’ Or it’s just a consistent grind and you’re trying to figure it out throughout the season.”

But Gibson also did the lineup few favors.

The 37-year-old gave up a 2-0 lead in just five pitches in the first inning. After seeming to stabilize in the next two frames, Gibson gave up four long fly balls in the fourth — including a 435-foot wallop by Jo Adell that pinballed in the rock sculpture past the center-field fence.

The Angels loaded the bases in the fifth inning without an out before Gibson checked out for good, his ERA now at 13.11 in his second stint with the club.

“I just have to pitch better,” Gibson said. “I have to put the team in a better spot to where they’re not feeling like they’re digging out of the hole.”

The bullpen allowed no further damage, including a two-inning stretch from converted starter Charlie Morton. But Orioles hitters managed little else either, aside from a ninth-inning homer from a pinch-hitting Ramón Laureano. They failed to get a runner even in scoring position in the final third of the game.

The Orioles hope for better results Sunday, as opening day starter Zach Eflin retakes the hill for the first time in a month to play the rubber match. They need a victory Sunday afternoon to escape Anaheim with their third series win of the season against the last-place team in the AL West.

This article has been updated.