MILWAUKEE — There’s no good time to issue a walk, but there are worse times for walks than others, and the bottom of the eighth inning with Brice Turang at the plate and William Contreras on deck was one of the worst times.

There were two outs in the eighth inning, and right-hander Yennier Cano couldn’t win a full-count battle against Turang. With that speed on first, Turang promptly swiped second base — his 13th steal this season — and provided Contreras a key opportunity with a runner in scoring position.

Contreras then bounced a single through the middle, just out of the reach of a diving Gunnar Henderson at shortstop, for his career-high-tying fourth hit of the game.

The margin for error the Orioles are working with currently is miniscule, and the two-out walk to bring Contreras to the plate was far too large. Baltimore went on to lose its seventh straight game. Unlike some of the lopsided results of late, this was of the one-run variety, a 5-4 loss against the Milwaukee Brewers in the series opener.

This seven-game losing streak is Baltimore’s longest since it lost 19 straight games in 2021.

This is not an easy predicament. Manager Brandon Hyde was fired Saturday and interim manager Tony Mansolino will wait a little longer for his first win at the helm. It appeared as though Baltimore would have a chance Monday, given Cedric Mullins’ seventh-inning heroics. But the three-run homer off Mullins’ bat only tied the game; Cano gave up that lead an inning later.

When asked if he considered intentionally walking Contreras once Turang stole second, Mansolino said the Orioles did. But they wanted to limit the possible damage in that inning to one run, and issuing a free pass might’ve led to a larger deficit for Baltimore to face in the ninth inning if the eighth unraveled.

He also believed in Cano to get out of it. Cano almost did; the changeup Contreras hit with two strikes for the game-winning RBI single was below the zone.

“Yenni’s one of our guys,” Mansolino said. “We really like Yenni, really in any situation. So, we bet on our guy, it didn’t work out. We’ll do it again next time.”

In a time where silver linings are harder and harder to find, Mullins counts as one.

The hits haven’t come in bunches lately for Mullins. He entered Monday’s series opener with eight hits in 15 games this month. But the veteran center fielder has made those hits count — of the eight, three were doubles and three were homers, and he drove in seven runs.

He has a knack for the moment, then. And the moment came in the seventh inning when right-hander Nick Mears, who entered with a 1.00 ERA in 20 games, left a fastball over the heart of the zone. Mullins crushed it — his team-leading 10th homer of the season.

“He’s the leader of this team and when he goes, we go,” Ramón Laureano said. “So, the stats show it.”

And earlier, Laureano continued what is a strong stretch of his own. He gave the Orioles a lead with a solo homer, his sixth, and finished with three hits. In his last five games, Laureano has 11 knocks, and his OPS on the season is up to .870.

If Baltimore had managed to complete a comeback win, it would have been their first when trailing entering the seventh inning. Instead, the Orioles fall to 0-26 in those situations.

Compared to the last two days, the start right-hander Dean Kremer provided for the Orioles was decent. That isn’t saying too much, but Kremer at least avoided an early meltdown like the ones that struck Kyle Gibson and Zach Eflin, which left Baltimore in deep holes early.

The Brewers still hit Kremer hard. Five of their nine hits against Kremer traveled at 97 mph or faster off the bat, and they tagged him with three doubles and a triple. Still, that only resulted in four runs against Kremer in his 5 1/3 innings, although it could’ve been more given the shaky appearance from right-hander Seranthony Domínguez.

Domínguez replaced Kremer with one out in the sixth and Sal Frelick on third. Domínguez then loaded the bases with two walks that sandwiched a strikeout. A slick play from third baseman Ramón Urías, who charged a slow chopper and threw out Jackson Chourio, kept the damage there and allowed for Baltimore’s to tie the game with one swing.

“Balls are just finding grass right now — for everybody," Kremer said. “Not just myself. For everybody. It’s tough, but we have to keep on moving on. Eventually something will change. We’re all looking forward to that time. But for right now, things are just finding grass.”

The thing about baseball is that pitching often times is only as good as the hitting, and vice versa. For a team to get out of a rut — and at this point, the Orioles’ circumstances represent more of a ravine — they will need better from both units, together.

The fact Baltimore has lost 29 of its 34 games when allowing four or more runs reinforces the duality of this game. Sure, has the pitching been poor? Yes. Has the offense been just as poor? Yes. That’s why Baltimore is now 15-31 and firmly in last place in the American League East.

“I think we battled and we put good contact,” Laureano said. “Just came down to that last moment and we lost.”