Blue Jays get reality check in series-opening loss to Orioles

TORONTO — Three weeks ago, when the Toronto Blue Jays last opened a series against the Baltimore Orioles, they were in a bad spot. They’d lost seven of their last 10 games and a viral illness left them with only nine position players healthy enough for the May 13 opener. Jose Berrios was touch and go to make his start until his fever broke in the morning, compounding the survival-mode feel. Yet despite it all, they delivered one of their most inspired efforts of the season, a 3-2, 10-inning win that was a glimpse at what they’re capable of against an elite opponent.

“Every game needs to be that way,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said Monday. “We can't walk in and expect to roll on anyone. We put ourselves in a tough situation and we have to put our feet on the gas pedal every night. And if we don’t, we're going to be on the couch come playoff time. So, it's just more of a reality check of where we are in the standings and the urgency. It's time to pony up. If we lose games and we're competing, it is what it is, but if we're coming in not ready to play, that’s a different situation. Since that time, we've understood it's a day-by-day thing at this point.”

The Blue Jays, after a rainout, ended up splitting that series, losing the finale 3-2 on Adley Rutschman’s walk-off home run. They then returned home to drop two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays and proceeded to go 8-5 over a 13-game soft spot in the schedule they really needed more from.

A return engagement with the wild-card leading Orioles beginning Monday at Rogers Centre offered up a litmus test of where the Blue Jays are at heading into a hard June in which the Oakland Athletics are the only sub-.500 opponent on tap.

The first of four didn’t go well, with Kevin Gausman touched up for three homers, two by Austin Hays, and six runs over 6.1 innings in a 7-2 loss. A run-scoring triple by Daulton Varsho and solo shot by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — his first since May 23 — accounted for Toronto's damage against Grayson Rodriguez, who was pressured but never really threatened.

“I think we missed fastballs, really,” said manager John Schneider. “There were fastballs in the zone. He's got a good heater, we knew that going in and we either missed them or didn't do much with them. And that was kind of it.”

The Blue Jays, now 28-31, need to channel the energy they had in Baltimore and fast, as Tuesday they face Corbin Burnes in the first game that the injured Alek Manoah’s spot comes up. While Schneider said the Blue Jays are TBD for a starter, Bowden Francis is expected to be activated from the injured list and be part of the equation.

The challenge for the pitchers Tuesday is best underlined by this disparity — heading into Monday’s contest, the Blue Jays had 41 homers in their entire batting order, while the Orioles had 44 from their top four alone.

Gausman and relievers Brendon Little and Ryan Burr did a nice job of keeping that group at bay – Gunnar Henderson, Rutschman, Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn were a combined 3-for-18 with a walk – but the rest of the Orioles lineup got their knocks in.

Anthony Santander’s two-run homer in the second, on an 0-2 fastball above the zone, opened the scoring. Colton Corser’s RBI double made it 3-1 in the third and Hays followed with his first homer of the season to extend the advantage.

Guerrero’s sixth of the season came in the bottom of the inning and brought some life to the crowd of 23,842, but Hays drilled his second of the game in the seventh and defensive replacement Ramon Urias added another in the ninth.

The Hays home runs were both on mistakes, while the Santander drive came on the chase swing Gausman was looking for.

“I made my pitch and similar to the (Carlos) Santana home run earlier this year (against the Twins), where you make your pitch, they're obviously sold out to a fastball up and they clip you. These guys are the best in the world. He swung and missed that same pitch two pitches before,” said Gausman, whose streak of three straight quality starts ended. “I thought I did a really good job of getting the big guys at the top, besides Santander. They're deep. They've got a lot of young talent there, obviously, playing, with their hair on fire right now, very confident.”

The final score was a sharp contrast to the games in Baltimore, where Schneider said, “we played really well. We played good defence. We pitched really well. That's what you have to do against this team because they can score and they've got some really talented players.”

Monday’s opener was a reminder of what happens when all that doesn’t line up.

“They're built to do damage,” said Schneider. “And (the bottom) part of the order kind of got us tonight.”

That made for an inauspicious start to this challenging stretch, one that will carry a lot of weight in the direction the front office takes ahead of the July 30 trade deadline. The injuries to Manoah and closer Jordan Romano, who received an anti-inflammatory injection in his right elbow Sunday, are threats to their recent progress and make escaping the hole they’re in even tougher. 

“The season is an accumulation of ups and downs,” said Kiner-Falefa, who went 1-for-4 on hard-hit balls each time. “Everybody goes through their struggles, everybody goes through their highs and it's just withstanding the storm and understanding that you've got to stay the path, but you also have to do everything in your power to keep on a productive path. If you're losing, you're losing the right way, like forcing in the closer in a situation where he shouldn't be in the game. That way you tire him out for the series, little things like that. And just understanding how there are bigger effects in series wins. … You never want to lose but if you're going to lose, make it make it worthwhile, giving your team a better chance to win the next few days.”

That’s what the Blue Jays were left with after a disappointing start to a tipping-point stretch in their season.