Sam Perlozzo was fired as manager of the Baltimore Orioles after the team’s losing streak reached eight games, becoming the first manager in Major League Baseball to lose his job this season.

Bullpen coach Dave Trembley will take over on an interim basis as the club looks for someone to replace Perlozzo, Orioles Vice President Mike Flanagan said in a televised press conference.

“It wasn’t one event, one game that really led to this decision,” Flanagan said. “We felt like it was slipping away from us. We’re a better club than we’ve played, and we can still be a better club.”

The Orioles want to meet with former Manager of the Year Joe Girardi to discuss the opening, ESPN said on its Web site. Flanagan declined to comment on how long Trembley would remain as manager and who the team might hire permanently.

Baltimore is in last place in the American League East Division with a 29–40 record, 15.5 games behind the first- place Boston Red Sox. The team has been swept in its last two series by the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Nationals at home, and has lost 13 of the past 15 games.

“It’s been a tough month. Maybe some of the most horrific losses that this club has maybe ever endured,” Flanagan said. “We just felt that, after this last homestand, it was time for a change.”

The Orioles haven’t reached the MLB playoffs since 1997.

Perlozzo, 56, had a record of 122–164 since taking over on an interim basis when Lee Mazzilli was fired in August 2005. The team went 23–32 for the rest of that season, and his interim title was dropped.

In Perlozzo’s only full year as manager in 2006, Baltimore went 70–92 and finished fourth in the AL East, 27 games behind the firstplace New York Yankees.

Girardi, who works as a television analyst with the YES Network, was the National League’s top manager last season while with the Florida Marlins. He led the Marlins to a 78–84 record with one baseball’s lowest payrolls, $14 million, and was fired after several vocal arguments with owner Jeffrey Loria.