ST. PETERSBURG -- After allowing six runs in the first two innings of his fifth start of the season Tuesday night, Rays starter Tyler Glasnow said he is in “search mode.”

Specifically, Glasnow is pursuing a mechanical tweak that will allow him to return to form after seeing his fastball velocity dip while he allowed six hits over 4 1/3 innings in the Rays’ 8-6 loss to the Orioles at Tropicana Field.

The Rays have lost three games in a row -- making them the last club in the Majors to endure a three-game losing streak this season -- and six of their past 10. Tampa Bay still leads Baltimore by four games in the American League East standings heading into Wednesday’s matinee series finale.

The more pressing issue is getting Glasnow back to his best. Before Tuesday’s outing, the big right-hander hadn’t allowed six runs in a regular-season start since serving up seven to Toronto on Sept. 5, 2018. The bright side? It’s not an injury-related issue. It’s a problem Glasnow has dealt with before, and he is confident he’ll be able to fix it.

“I can look at video and know what's going on. I'm just having trouble trying to implement it and fix it and do that stuff,” Glasnow said. “But I know it'll come back.”

After working his way back from Tommy John surgery to pitch three games for the Rays last year, including one in the postseason, Glasnow sustained a left oblique strain in March and didn’t make his season debut until May 27. But he wouldn’t blame anything on his strange buildup to this season, instead citing a familiar hitch in his mechanics.

Glasnow said he has been “coming off of everything” in his delivery, rushing down the mound in a way that reduces his power and creates inconsistency with his release point. It will all sync up “randomly,” he noted, but it has created a lot of variance with his typically high-octane heater.

The 41 fastballs Glasnow threw on Tuesday averaged 95.4 mph, clocking in as low as 93.2 mph and topping out at 97.1 mph. Since joining the Rays in 2018, his fastball has consistently sat around 97 mph while occasionally flirting with triple digits. In his first four starts of the season, Glasnow's heater clocked in at an average of 96 mph.

“My arm feels like it's floating in space, and I can't really get any sort of leverage with the ground,” he said. “It's something I've dealt with before, and I'm just having trouble trying to fix it at the moment. … A lot of times, it's just kind of getting that comfortable feeling again and getting back to being athletic.”

Glasnow was in trouble from the start, needing 31 pitches to get through the first inning. His first pitch of the night was roped for a double to right by Gunnar Henderson, who quickly scored on a one-out single by Anthony Santander. Austin Hays kept the inning going with a two-out single to left-center, and Aaron Hicks capitalized by crushing a slider out to right for a three-run homer.

“Every time they got a pitch they could handle, it seems like they handled it,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “A little uncharacteristic for Glas, but I would bet he's going to bounce right back.”

With two outs in the second, Glasnow walked Adley Rutschman, then gave up a two-run homer to Santander on a two-strike curveball below the zone. Interestingly, the Orioles swung at only four of Glasnow’s 14 curveballs and didn’t whiff on any of them. It was the first time since Sept. 28, 2018, that he did not record a strikeout on his curveball.

Glasnow settled down after that, retiring eight of the final nine batters he faced while striking out five of them, but the damage was already done. He began the fifth inning by striking out Santander on his 85th pitch, then was lifted for Shawn Armstrong, who allowed a home run to Ryan O’Hearn to make it a 7-0 game.

But the Rays didn’t quit. They scored two runs in the fifth, made it a one-run game with a four-run sixth and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, only to fall short against shutdown closer Félix Bautista.

“I think that says a lot about our team,” Randy Arozarena said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “We were able to reduce the lead that they had a little bit. That says a lot about our team and what we're capable of doing with this offense.”