The Orioles came out swinging in Toronto and still left with nothing to show for it.
They made Dylan Cease labor through a 33-pitch first inning, loading the bases with nobody out on two walks and a single. Coby Mayo even worked himself into a 3-0 count.
But when the inning finally ended, it ended with Cease still standing - strikeout, strikeout, strikeout against Mayo, Samuel Basallo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. Baltimore had the chance to land a heavy early blow and let it slip.
That miss loomed large once the Blue Jays broke the game open. The Orioles tied it in the top of the fifth, only for George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Kazuma Okamoto to answer with three straight two-out homers in the bottom half of Toronto’s 8-1 win at Rogers Centre. Guerrero’s ninth homer - and his first at Rogers Centre - even brought a curtain call.
Baltimore’s slide keeps getting steeper. The loss was its ninth in the last 12 games, dropped the club to 72-78 and left the Orioles closer to elimination in the Wild Card chase. They went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13.
The standings picture tightened, too, in the wrong direction for Baltimore. Cleveland beat Minnesota 9-2 and moved four games ahead of the Orioles for the final Wild Card spot. Because the Guardians hold the tiebreaker, that edge effectively becomes five.
Trevor Rogers had been carrying some rare efficiency into the start, having gone two outings without allowing a walk or a homer. He was trying to become just the eighth starter in franchise history to do that in three straight, and the first since Dave Schmidt from July 10-19, 1987. Instead, Rogers got hit for four runs and seven hits over six innings, with Okamoto’s walk in the third the only early damage before Toronto’s fifth-inning surge.
Baltimore did scratch out the tying run in the fifth. Dylan Beavers opened the inning with a double and scored when Pete Alonso dropped a bloop single down the right-field line that he couldn’t track after it came off his hat.
Alonso finished with his second hit of the day and now owns his fifth 35-homer, 100-RBI season. He could reach his 300th career homer this week at Citi Field.
The Orioles kept pressing after that, but the at-bats kept ending in frustration. Gunnar Henderson drew his third walk of the inning, then Basallo grounded into a force and Encarnacion-Strand lined one off Cease’s hand for an out. Baltimore left two more on base there and never really recovered.
Cease was finished after five, which forced Toronto into its bullpen earlier than the club wanted after using an opener and six relievers the day before. The Orioles, though, couldn’t take advantage.
Cam Sanders watched three inherited runners score when Springer ripped a bases-clearing double on a ball that skipped past Beavers in left field. Yaramil Hiraldo, recalled earlier in the day, was charged with four runs in the eighth.
The ninth inning brought one last brief flicker. Michael Lorenzen put the first two Orioles on base, but the rally died on a strikeout and a double play. Mayo’s strikeout was Baltimore’s 15th of the afternoon, and Yohel Pozo, possibly worn down from back-to-back games, also grounded into a double play.
In Other News...
Orioles Suddenly Have A Kyle Bradish Problem They Can't Ignore
Kyle Bradishs season ended the way the Orioles could least afford it, with another trip to the injured list and another reminder of how unstable their rotation has been. Baltimore placed the right-hander on the 15-day IL because of lower abdominal discomfort, a move that effectively shuts him down after a difficult finish to the year. He went 7-14 with a 4.12 ERA and 142 strikeouts across 29 starts, and his recent outings never really gave the club much reason to expect a late lift.
Yaramil Hiraldo was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to take the roster spot, but the larger issue is what Bradishs absence means for a team that has been trying to hold its pitching together. For an Orioles staff that already needed reliability, losing one of its key starters at this stage leaves another thin layer peeled away, and it comes at a time when Baltimore can least afford more uncertainty on the mound. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Wild Card Push Is Running Out Of Time
The Orioles needed a steadier night on the mound to keep pace in the Wild Card race, but instead they got another uneven outing in a 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Kyle Bradish was tagged for five runs in three innings, and Baltimore spent much of the night chasing the game while trying to stay in touch with the teams ahead of it in the standings.
With 13 games left, the margin for error has all but disappeared. Baltimore sits three games behind Cleveland for the final American League Wild Card spot, which leaves little room for losses like this one as the club tries to hang on in a crowded finish. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Just Got A Reminder How Little Margin They Have
Torontos stumble in the opener was a useful one-night reminder for Baltimore of just how quickly the American League wild-card picture can shift. The Blue Jays arrived having won four straight, then dropped into a stretch where they had lost four of five, leaving them two games behind Cleveland for the third wild-card spot and just one game ahead of the Orioles entering Saturday.
Baltimore could not assume that edge would hold for long. The Jays answered in the next game with a 7-3 win, and even with some defensive mistakes mixed in, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk supplied the kind of offense that can erase a deficit in a hurry. For the Orioles, it was another glimpse at the narrow margin separating them from the group they are trying to chase down. [Read more 🡒]