TAMPA, Fla. — As Rays shortstop Ha-Seong Kim lightly jogged to home plate on Saturday night to tie the game at 2 in the eighth inning, every head in the Orioles’ dugout looked down.

The game was not over. There was still another inning, another chance for the Orioles to win, but their facial expressions showed it all. This game, for an offense that hadn’t scored since the first inning and had only scored two runs in their previous three games, was slipping away.

After Kim breezed in, Seranthony Domínguez loaded the bases and passed the mess off to Gregory Soto to attempt to clean up. He didn’t. Jonathan Aranda hit a grounder to Ryan O’Hearn, who threw the ball home to try to get Chandler Simpson out to keep the score tied. But the throw went wide and Simpson and José Caballero, who was at second, scored.

“In that scenario there with the speed of Chandler Simpson at third base, you’ve got to get rid of that ball quick,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “I thought O did a good job. He got rid of it. He just didn’t make the throw that we wanted. ... I thought it was 100% the right decision going to the plate, just didn’t get the play there.”

Because the Orioles did not get the play there, the Rays took a 4-2 lead, holding on as the Orioles tried to rally in the ninth to win 4-3 to take the second game out of the All-Star break. At 43-54, there is still a chance the Orioles can get back to .500 before the July 31 trade deadline, but they will need to be perfect over the next 12 games.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the first two games of the year or the first two games after the All-Star break or first two games in the middle of September,” pitcher Dean Kremer said. “Anytime we drop games that we feel like we should have won, I think it’s frustrating. We have a pretty good caliber team here, and it is what it is.”

Kremer did his job and, if he can pitch that way the rest of the season, he could play a part in however much this team can get back on track.

In his last start before the break, Kremer pitched seven shutout innings against the Marlins. He came close to replicating that against the Rays, a team he has performed well against this season. In his first six innings, he held the Rays to just one baserunner per inning.

In the seventh, Kremer allowed a leadoff walk to Yandy Díaz, who advanced to third on a Junior Caminero double. Díaz then scored on a Josh Lowe groundout. That was the only run Kremer gave up, the righty getting the trust of his manager to finish the seventh. He did, getting Jake Mangum to fly out to end his day.

“Just really proud of him competing, proud of him getting through the seventh with kind of how that thing was going,” Mansolino said. “He walks Yandy, he’s a great hitter in the league, and then Caminero hits a chopper down the line that gets past us, kind of tough luck. Kind of to navigate that, give up one, get us in the eighth with a one-run lead, just proud of him.”

The Orioles had given Kremer an early lead, Jackson Holliday opening the game with a single and Jordan Westburg following with a double. Gunnar Henderson then sent Holliday home with a sacrifice fly, and O’Hearn singled in Westburg.

That would be the only offense they would produce as they went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

They had one final chance in the ninth, after Tyler O’Neill hit a double with one out. Cedric Mullins hit an RBI single to shallow left to get the Orioles back within one.

With the Orioles down to their final out, Holliday had a chance. He hit the ball to deep center, and for a moment it looked as if it may have had enough juice to go over the wall. But it went just 401 feet and Simpson caught it to end the game.

“I thought it had a chance,” Holliday said. “It’s pretty big out there to center, so I didn’t really know. I knew I hit it well. I guess I just hit it a little bit too high. But I’ve seen some balls go out that have been hit a lot less hard than that here. So I thought I had a chance, but it just didn’t go far enough.”

Another winnable game, once again, goes the other way for the Orioles.

This article has been updated.