ARLINGTON -- The Rays are reeling.

They were swept for just the second time this season on Wednesday, losing their grip on first place in the American League East with a 5-1 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field. Tampa Bay is now tied with the Baltimore Orioles for first place as the teams are set to open a four-game series Thursday at Tropicana Field.

“[The Orioles] have been playing really good ball,” right fielder Manuel Margot said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “They’ve been making the adjustments that have been necessary. We haven’t. We have to take advantage of some of those opportunities and go out there and play and try to defend that first place that we’ve been in all season long.”

The Rays’ recent skid can be pointed mostly toward the offensive struggles. Manager Kevin Cash described the lineup as being in “a rut.”

This is an offense that is batting just .210 in July, which is largely why the Rays are 3-11 this month. They had 10 hits on Wednesday but produced just a single run. They finished 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

Presented with a number of options to explain his team’s struggles at the plate, ranging from opposing pitchers using different approaches to his batters pressing, Cash opted for “all of the above.”

“We don't have much going our way right now,” he said. “We're not creating opportunities like we're capable of, and the things that we're doing well are probably not showing up at the rate that we would like.”

The Rays tried to get things going throughout the series finale Wednesday, but nothing went their way.

In the second inning, Margot doubled down the right-field line. Josh Lowe tried to race home from first base, but he was thrown out at the plate after the Rangers executed a nice relay from Adolis García to Marcus Semien to Jonah Heim.

“Great play by them,” Cash said. “García picks the ball, gets rid of it quick, Semien gets rid of it quicker and puts it right on the money. They made three throws today right on the bag.”

The other throws came in the third and seventh innings. Taylor Walls tried to get as big of a lead as possible off second base with one out in the third, but Walls was picked off by Rangers starter Jon Gray. In the seventh, Margot reached on a leadoff bunt down the first-base line, but that inning ended with Margot being thrown out trying to steal second on a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play by the Rangers.

“We have to be able to take advantage of some of those opportunities,” Margot said. “I don’t think we were able to make those adjustments when the time was necessary.”

One positive coming out of the game was right-hander Zack Littell pitching well as an opener, as he allowed one run on five hits with no walks and four strikeouts over a season-long 3 1/3 innings.

And left fielder Randy Arozarena made a spectacular catch on a well-hit line drive by Semien in the seventh inning. Arozarena hit his right knee on the wall and felt “a little something” in his back, but he stayed in the game and believes he’ll be OK going forward.

“Yeah, I think so. I’ll be fine,” he said through Navarro. “Even though I hit my back a little bit, I think I’ll be ready to go for the game tomorrow.”

Arozarena also expressed little concern over the offense’s struggles of late. Quite simply, he feels this is a stretch that the Rays will eventually get out of.

“I don't think we've really got to change anything,” he said. “I think that is just the way the game is. Sometimes you go well, and you face a pitcher and it goes well, and sometimes you don't go well and you think it's the pitching.

“We have to just keep on going, keep on trying, keep on battling and not change a thing. At the beginning of the year, we were doing the same thing as we're doing now. We were just getting different results. The last few games haven't really gone our way, but we can't give up now. We still have to go the rest of the season. There's 162 games.”