Pardon the headline, but I watched Paul Simon’s “Seven Psalms” concert on one of the streaming apps on Sunday and that song kept playing in my head during the late innings of Monday night’s game at Oriole Park.

The Orioles slipped to eight games under .500 when another tight game unraveled and the surprising Chicago White Sox opened a three-game series with a lopsided 8-2 victory.

No one should be surprised at this point, since the O’s have made a habit of hiding their vaunted offensive talent from view during the early innings and then trying to make up for all those lost at-bats before it’s too late.

Sometimes that works. This time it didn’t. The White Sox, who were expected to be an abysmal team this year, blew open a 2-2 game in the final two frames while the Orioles, who were expected to be a whole lot better than this, suffered another embarrassing defeat.

It was so disappointing that the “Tarps Off’ kids in the right-field upper deck couldn’t get their shirts back on fast enough.

Where this goes from here is anyone’s guess. Manager Craig Albernaz can take some solace in the fact that his team is not alone in its struggle to play up to potential. There are so many American League teams in the same situation that it’s hard to imagine anyone being mathematically eliminated from the playoff race until late September.

The evening began with the Orioles just three games out of the third wild-card spot, so it’s okay to dream that they will find their way out of this competitive wilderness before it’s too late. But their 39-47 record equals their deepest dip below sea level this year and doesn’t exactly endorse the notion that everything will eventually be okay.

Albernaz can only hope, but he clearly is searching for answers that have yet to be revealed and obviously cannot give in to the idea that the season might be getting away from his team.

“It’s more of us just not playing a complete game of baseball … that’s what’s keeping me up at night,’’ he said after the game. “I think we have to handle our business first before worrying about wild-card standings or anything like that. We have to be able to play our game from top to finish and control what we can control and put pressure on the other team and being able to convert outs. That’s the biggest thing.”

The defensive issues stand out, of course, because they were so glaring. One game in each of the last four series has featured at least one sloppy defensive play that contributed to a frustrating loss. Monday night was the latest, but the game was already getting out of hand in the ninth inning when Gunnar Henderson let a ball skip under his glove that was generously ruled a double, and Blaze Alexander made his fourth infield error in his last five games.

This game was decided in the bullpen after starting pitcher Shane Baz survived some early command issues to give up just two runs over seven innings. The same setup relievers who did such a solid job during the first couple months of the season have faltered at a time when there haven’t been enough runs to gloss over their struggles.

Left-hander Grant Wolfram came on to start the eighth and hit the first hitter he faced before giving up a tie-breaking double to White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery. Rico Garcia came on with two outs and gave up an RBI single to Randal Grichuk.

Yennier Cano, who had been channeling his overpowering 2023-24 self for much of the first half, took over in the ninth and combined with the shoddy defense to allow four runs (two earned) on four hits to remove all doubt.

Of course, the Orioles have been in this position before and bounced back, most notably after blowing the series opener in Los Angeles 10 days ago and recovering to win the next two games against the winningest team in baseball. Trouble is, they have shown that kind of resilience several times over the last month only to quickly backtrack and waste those opportunities.

Albernaz could only concede that it has been “extremely disappointing.”

That about sums it up.