ST. PETERSBURG -- Even after his shortest stint of this season, Orioles starter Jordan Lyles was playing the long game.

“I don’t think we’re here to go away,’’ Lyles said. “We’re here to stay.’’

• Box score

Entering the All-Star break, the Orioles are a .500 team (46-46) following Sunday afternoon’s 7-5 defeat to the Rays at Tropicana Field. During Spring Training, no one expected such a thing from Baltimore, which was a last-place 52-110 club in 2021. But times have changed.

Lyles went just 2 2/3 innings, and the Orioles trailed 6-0 after three innings. They battled back, though, and made it a two-run game on Austin Hays’ solo home run, eventually bringing the tying run to the plate with no outs in the eighth.

Ultimately, though, the Orioles could not recover from a difficult start.

“I feel really good about what we’ve done [in the first half],’’ Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “Even today. We got down a ton early, but we kept battling. Every team is playing well in our division. We’re right in there, and I’m happy with how we stick in games.’’

Hyde said it was an uncharacteristic outing for Lyles, who allowed six hits, six runs and two homers.

“He just didn’t have his command today,’’ Hyde said. “He has gotten off to some slow starts [and recovered]. I kind of kept waiting for him to pick it up in the third, but the command just wasn’t there.

“This is a small blip in what he has done for us overall, which is pitch every fifth day, give us a chance almost every time out and stay out there as long as possible. He wants to save the bullpen, and he’s ultracompetitive. It wasn’t his best day today.’’

After hitting Harold Ramírez, the Rays’ second batter of the game -- who suffered a fractured thumb on the HBP -- Lyles surrendered a two-run homer to Randy Arozarena on a pitch he felt good about. He couldn’t say the same about the third inning, when Brett Phillips yanked his 3-2 middle-middle fastball into the right-field bleachers for a three-run homer and a 6-0 advantage.

Phillips had been 5-for-his-last-84 (all singles) and hadn’t hit a homer since May 17.

“I told Adley [Rutschman, catcher] to let me throw middle, and he [Phillips] made me pay for it,’’ Lyles said. “I should’ve hit my spot on that one.

“I have a job to do, which I didn’t do today. Usually I can help the guys in the bullpen, and they can rely on me. Today, I had to rely on them. Chalk this up to being a bad one.’’

The Orioles got two runs back in the fourth with four singles off Rays starter Corey Kluber, including RBIs from Rutschman and Ramón Urías. They closed to within 6-4 in the sixth on Rougned Odor’s two-run homer, but the Rays got one run back in the bottom of the inning on Francisco Mejía’s solo shot.

It was the Orioles’ 14th consecutive series defeat to the Rays at The Trop, a streak dating to June 23-25, 2017. Baltimore carried a 10-game winning streak into Friday night’s game, and it hopes to regain that momentum after the break.

“You’ve got to stay positive, enjoy this little break and these four days of rest,’’ Orioles left fielder Anthony Santander said. “When we come back, we’ve got to be aggressive, keep playing hard and win some ballgames.

“I think it was a very happy first half all around. I don’t think a lot of people expected us to be [at] .500. It has been unfortunate dealing with the past few seasons with so many losses, but this season we came with a new mindset.’’

In the short term, the Orioles were disappointed with another series loss at The Trop.

In the long term, they have stamped themselves as postseason contenders. Heading into the All-Star break, that’s not half-bad.