WASHINGTON — To look at different aspects of Wednesday’s game in a vacuum, there were plenty of encouraging displays. The seven innings from right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano were chief among them, an encouraging development for a rotation devoid of highs thus far, and they gave the Orioles a chance.

There were better offensive performances, too. Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday and Cedric Mullins each recorded two knocks. Jordan Westburg, who has battled a slump for days, tripled and scored the game-tying run in the eighth inning.

But moral victories don’t count for much in the Major League Baseball season, and with a late slip-up in an otherwise promising nine innings, the Orioles were on the wrong side of the final score again.

On one hand, this was a vast improvement from the disastrous performances Sunday and Tuesday, when Baltimore lost games by a combined 31-2. But, until winning becomes a habit for the Orioles, the most important fact about Wednesday is that the Washington Nationals beat them 4-3 to win the series.

The loss drops the Orioles’ record to a season-high five games under .500 (9-14) — the first time Baltimore has been there since July 6, 2022.

“I know this is my kind of first beginning of the season up in the big leagues, but this team expects to win, and it’s obviously frustrating to not win and perform at the level I think we all know we can,” Holliday said. “But we’re going to keep pushing and keep being competitive and try and push through this.”

When the fourth pitch of Sugano’s start left the confines of Nationals Park at 116.3 mph, it seemed as though this might be another long night for the Orioles. When a second homer, this time a two-run shot, departed later in the first inning, that feeling sunk in.

But Sugano didn’t ruminate on those two blasts. And, while Baltimore’s offense didn’t light up the night, the Orioles momentarily came back to tie the game in the eighth inning via Ramón Urías’ sacrifice fly.

“To be able to give up three runs the way we did early and scratch back to tie it, I’m proud of that. We’ve had a tough time doing that,” manager Brandon Hyde said.

Still, the Orioles stranded 12 runners and finished 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

That played a major role in why Baltimore sank to 0-13 in games it has trailed after six innings. Although Wednesday night seemed to be more of a complete display, without the defensive gaffes and rotation blunders that have become too routine, the offensive inconsistencies persisted.

The Orioles scrounged three runs together through Rutschman’s RBI hit in the third and sacrifice flies from Tyler O’Neill and Urías. The big hit remained elusive.

“Obviously, you want to cash in and score runs,” Holliday said. “But I thought, as a team, we put together some good at-bats and had runners in scoring position. So, yeah, you’ve got to take the positives when you can get them.”

The performance from Sugano, especially, is worth noting. He is the only Orioles starter to pitch deeper than six innings, and the 35-year-old Japanese rookie has now done so by completing seven innings in consecutive starts. After James Wood and Josh Bell throttled homers in the first inning, Sugano retired 19 of the next 21 batters he faced.

It was an efficient display. He struck out two batters and walked none. He forced early contact and, for the most part, kept that contact on the weak side. As Sugano adapts to the majors, Wednesday was another step in the right direction — displaying an unflinching nature that wasn’t swayed by the early runs against him.

“I always have this mentality of going deep every time I pitch,” Sugano said through team interpreter Yuto Sakurai. “The first inning, homers, it hurt, but I didn’t have any walks today, so that was a positive outcome.”

With a level score in the eighth, Hyde turned to left-hander Gregory Soto to face a group of left-handed batters, although right-handed pinch hitter Alex Call led off the frame with a single. Home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor then squeezed Soto, calling a ball on a pitch squarely in the strike zone. Rather than strike three, Wood ended the plate appearance with a walk.

Once a fielder’s choice moved Call to third, Luis García Jr.’s sacrifice fly saddled Soto with the loss.

The Orioles had a chance to come back, and Gunnar Henderson led off the ninth with a single. But Rutschman lined into an out at shortstop, and after Ryan Mountcastle singled, O’Neill and Heston Kjerstad couldn’t plate the tying run.

“Breaks are kind of hard to come by right now a little bit,” Hyde said. “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve just got to continue to play that way.”

The past two games, especially, had been marked by poor starting performances that buried the offense before it had much of a chance to produce. Of course, Wednesday still finished in a losing effort. But, given the circumstances, there is perhaps more to take heart from than in recent outings.

“We play baseball like that,” Hyde said, “we’re going to win a lot of games.”

This story has been updated.