BOSTON -- A quiet postgame setting in the visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park told the story of Wednesday night for the Orioles, who were again left upset over their inconsistent play.

There was still the noise of joyous Boston fans exiting the ballpark, those who were thrilled to see the Red Sox pick up a needed series win by handing the O’s a 5-3 loss in walk-off fashion. Tyler O’Neill ended the game with one swing, slugging a three-run homer off Keegan Akin in the 10th inning and sending the ball over the Green Monster and onto Lansdowne Street.

As Baltimore players packed their bags and prepared for a flight to Detroit, they again expressed discontent in a disappointed tone.

“Definitely frustrating, you know?” Akin said. “We’re at kind of a crucial point right now. Haven’t really been playing our best ball, but I think it’s coming, I do. You’re starting to see a little bit of it. Just got to kind of put it all together at one time, and I think we’ll go from there.”

Time is running out.

The Orioles (83-64) sit 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Yankees (84-62) in the American League East standings. The O’s have lost ground this week, as they dropped two of three with the Red Sox while the Yanks took two of three from the Royals in the Bronx.

Baltimore, which has 15 games remaining, still sits atop the AL Wild Card standings, with a three-game advantage over Kansas City (80-67), the current second Wild Card.

But the Orioles haven’t been playing like a team capable of going on a deep postseason run. They’re 25-26 since the All-Star break, and they’ve lost five of their past seven. They haven’t had a winning streak longer than three games during the second half. And the O’s had only one three-game winning streak (Sept. 1-3 vs. the lowly Rockies and White Sox) over that span.

It’s been rare for Baltimore to have all aspects of its game (offense, defense, pitching) in sync. Why is that, and is there anything that can be done to get hot and get rolling?

“I wish that was my job to tell you, but that's not my job. My job is to go out there and pitch,” right-hander Dean Kremer said. “That's a question for the higher-ups, the guys who make the decisions of who plays, who doesn't play and all that stuff.

“So I wish I could tell you, but I got no answer for that.”

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Kremer again did his part, allowing only two runs (one earned) over seven strong innings in the finale. He kept the game close before Anthony Santander tied it at 2 with a two-out solo homer in the eighth, his team-high 41st of the season.

Emmanuel Rivera was nearly an unlikely hero for the O’s. The 28-year-old journeyman infielder hit a go-ahead RBI single in the top of the 10th to cap a 2-for-4 performance that also featured a third-inning home run.

But the Red Sox rallied in the bottom of the 10th against Akin, who was needed for the save situation after Cionel Pérez, Yennier Cano and Seranthony Domínguez were all used to help get the game to extras.

Boston had runners on the corners with one out following an error by second baseman Jackson Holliday, then O’Neill crushed a 1-0 slider from Akin to end it.

“Just made a bad pitch. Paid the price for it,” Akin said. “Had to be at a crucial point in the game, obviously. But it’s baseball, it’s going to happen.”

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde could have intentionally walked the right-handed-hitting O’Neill to load the bases. But the Sox likely would have then sent Rob Refsnyder to the plate in place of Masataka Yoshida. So it was either let Akin face O’Neill or send in righty Matt Bowman to face the red-hot Refsnyder.

“Hoping we wouldn’t give O’Neill something good to hit,” Hyde said.

Various members of the O’s had expressed optimism that Tuesday was a turning point. They played a well-rounded game while beating the Red Sox, 5-3. Then, Baltimore still went on to lose the series. The bats are still cold, having plated three or fewer runs in six of the past seven games with only 15 total runs scored over that span. Baltimore's bullpen has been spotty, which resulted in the downturn during Monday’s 12-3 loss.

The Orioles’ next nine games will be against the red-hot Tigers (75-71), who are very much in the AL Wild Card hunt, and Giants (71-74). However, the O’s just completed a stretch in which they went 6-6 against the Rockies (54-92), White Sox (33-114), Rays (71-75) and Red Sox (74-72) -- four teams out of postseason spots.

“We have to keep going out there with the same mentality, stay strong and not trying to change too much,” Rivera said via team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “We have to go out there and be strong, and get the job done.”