MILWAUKEE — For any good that came in the seventh inning, when a pair of two-out RBIs offered a sigh of relief to the owners of the league-worst mark with runners in scoring position, the way the eighth inning fell apart for the Orioles unraveled any silver lining that could’ve been made from this.

The two throwing errors from Jackson Holliday and Adley Rutschman turned this into a sloppy mess. The home run that preceded them turned this into an out-of-reach game.

Holliday and Ramón Urías came through an inning earlier, and by doing so, they gave Baltimore a fighting chance to end a long losing streak. Instead, the ragged eighth inning doomed the Orioles to a 5-2 loss against the Milwaukee Brewers and extended Baltimore’s losing streak to eight games.

“The boys battled,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “Kind of fell apart for us right there in the eighth inning. Trying to keep it close right there; didn’t work out. Try again tomorrow.”

Are we at the point of silver linings? Maybe. The manager was fired. The team is now 17 games below .500 (15-32). No team in MLB history has recovered from a record 17-below .500 to win the World Series.

So, for a brief moment, the two-out hits from Urías and Holliday would have carried more weight. Perhaps it was a sign that the firing of manager Brandon Hyde on Saturday sent something of a wake-up call to the players to get their act together.

Despite all that, though, a little fight in the form of two RBI knocks in the seventh inning as a silver lining is a low bar. It shows how far this team has fallen. And after general manager Mike Elias remarked that he’s committed to finding a way to turn this around, the eight-game losing streak in which Baltimore is entrapped underscores just how tall of a task is ahead of Elias. If he’s indeed the one to see this out.

“I don’t think anyone in this clubhouse expected to be sitting right here,” Holliday said. “I know we have all really high expectations of what we can do, so it’s definitely been, I guess, testy, but we’re all in this together and we’re gonna keep pushing.”

In the grand scheme of this loss, right-hander Chayce McDermott was but a small part. He allowed three runs (home runs from Brice Turang and Sal Frelick) but otherwise avoided a collapse, even though he allowed nine baserunners. Still, Baltimore’s top pitching prospect showed a worrisome lack of command during his second major league start this season, and his third ever.

Mansolino credited McDermott’s composure to limit damage against him. Still, McDermott was more frank in his assessment.

“It was bad,” McDermott said of his command. “I’m just gonna be honest. It was pretty evident to see. You can’t throw under 50% strikes at any level of baseball, let alone the big leagues. Some mechanics were off. Rushing a little bit.”

McDermott finished 11-for-23 on first-pitch strikes. He fell behind often, which played a role in the five walks and four hits against him. And McDermott, acquired in the trade that sent Trey Mancini to Houston in 2022, threw just shy of 50% of his pitches for strikes (37 of 75). He didn’t show much deception, either, with three whiffs on 22 swings.

In all, that put him in disadvantageous matchups throughout his 4 2/3 innings in long relief after left-hander Keegan Akin’s scoreless opening frame. And Turang and Frelick took advantage.

In a 3-1 count, McDermott left a fastball in the heart of the zone. Turang launched it to deep left-center field for a solo homer. An inning later, Frelick took a 1-0 slider on the inner third of the plate deep for a two-run shot.

“I’m still getting my feet under me and I think this is only my fifth outing since coming back from the lat strain,” McDermott said. “Sometimes this happens, you lose a little bit of the mechanics, the command a little bit. I’m not really worried. I know I’ll find it. I’m just a little upset at how that went today.”

With how shoddy the offensive performances have been of late, the three runs against McDermott proved a mighty hill to climb. It got worse when right-hander Félix Bautista allowed a solo shot to Rhys Hoskins in the eighth. An unearned run came home later when Holliday’s off-balance throw sailed over first baseman Ryan Mountcastle’s head.

Holliday said he was just “trying to make a play” and given Joey Ortiz’s speed, the rushed throw sailed on him.

“I expect to make those plays,” said Holliday, although the error wasn’t the difference in the loss by any means. “I’ve been making plays like that at shortstop. I guess it’s just a little bit different of a throw. But I mean, that’s a play that I think I can make and I’m gonna keep grinding on it.”

The Orioles had a difficult time against Brewers right-hander Logan Henderson, who was making just his third career start. He struck out seven, allowed two hits and recorded 20 whiffs. Those are the third-most whiffs a starting pitcher has recorded against the Orioles this season, behind Tarik Skubal’s 22 and MacKenzie Gore’s 21.

Baltimore has made too many starters look like stars. Perhaps Henderson will be a star one day, but he’s still only 23 and has pitched all of 16 innings in the majors.

“Kind of had his best stuff tonight,” Mansolino said. “He was tough, man. Just from the side, kind of a low slot. Ball was jumping on our guys. But the fellas kept going, and we will keep doing that, and at some point it’s probably going to turn in our direction.”

There was at least a sign of life in the seventh inning, despite a costly double play from Heston Kjerstad when there were two on with no outs. Urías still came through with a two-out RBI single against right-hander Joel Payamps. Then Holliday, whose OPS in May is north of .900, checked in with an RBI triple to the wall in left-center field.

Take that as a bright spot. There sure haven’t been many of late as losses stack up and the season looks more lost by the day.