BALTIMORE -- The poor pitching continued for the Detroit Tigers in a 9-5 loss Thursday night to the Baltimore Orioles.

During the first week of the season, Detroit has been able to count on starter Justin Verlander and the back of the bullpen. However, the rest of the rotation and the middle relief have been suspect at best.

On Thursday, Detroit took leads at three different points, but lost every one of them. Starter Brad Penny couldn’t hold 2-0 or 4-2 advantages. Three relievers allowed five runs in the seventh inning to waste the lead taken in the top half of that inning.

"We just couldn’t shut it down,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, whose club has a 2-4 record and 7.02 ERA after series at Yankee Stadium and Camden Yards.

The seventh inning is when Joel Zumaya (right elbow) or Ryan Perry (left eye abrasion) are supposed to provide the answers and outs. But both are on the disabled list, and Brad Thomas, Enrique Gonzalez and Daniel Schlereth could not get the job done against the Orioles.

"I never look at stuff like that,” Leyland said. "It is what it is.”

Mark Reynolds’ two-run double was the big blow, and right fielder Don Kelly’s throwing error contributed to the fall-apart inning. But it was Thomas’ walk to Nick Markakis after Brian Roberts’ lead-off single that bothered Leyland.

"The killer at-bat was the walk to Markakis,” Leyland said. "It put the go-ahead run on base with the heart of the order coming up.”

Gonzalez came on after the walk to Markakis and struck out Lee before Vladimir Guerrero punched an opposite-field single to right to tie the game at 5-5.

Adam Jones hit a sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run, and center fielder Jackson made a great running catch. But then Reynolds doubled in two runs and the game slipped away.

Rookie Brayan Villarreal relieved Penny to get the final two outs of the sixth inning, and was the only pitcher who did not contribute to the carnage.

Jackson’s RBI-double put Detroit ahead 5-4 in the seventh, but it became the third lead that would get away.

Penny gave up a two-run homer to Jones on his 90th and last pitch of the night in the sixth inning to tie the game 4-4.

"I let it go in the sixth and it snowballed from there,” Penny said.

Leyland said Penny "was pretty good” except for "a bad location pitch to Jones.”

The Tigers staked Penny to a 2-0 lead in the first, when they forced Orioles starter Chris Tillman to throw 32 pitches. Will Rhymes had a 12-pitch at-bat before lining out.

Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez both had RBI-singles, and Martinez’s went off the scoreboard in right. They scored Jackson and Brennan Boesch, both of whom singled.

A big inning was brewing, but Kelly hit into a double play to end the threat.

"One more hit there and maybe we have a chance for four or five runs,” Leyland said. "A killer blow might have changed things. But the guy (Tillman) didn’t allow a hit his last time out (in a six-inning start).”

Baltimore tied it at 2-2 in the second. Guerrero led off with his first homer with the Orioles and Reynolds had a run-scoring single.

"Overall, I wasn’t very pleased with the way I pitched,” said Penny, who has an 11.17 ERA.

Alex Avila’s second homer in as many games, a solo shot leading off the fifth, put Detroit back in the lead. Boesch put another run on the scoreboard with a double, scoring Rhymes after he walked.

Detroit might have scored in the fourth, when Martinez followed Cabrera’s leadoff walk with a liner to right-center that center fielder Jones juggled three or four times before having it glance off the wall and into the glove of right fielder Markakis. The umpires ruled that the ball was caught.

"He just didn’t see it,” Leyland said of the umpire. "But as it turned out, the ball hit the wall. It’s just one of those things.”

The Tigers scored enough to win, but allowed at least six runs for the fourth time in six games.