The Orioles’ 8-1 hot stretch came to a screeching halt against the first-place Blue Jays, who easily knocked off the O’s, 6-1, in the opener of a three-game series. Trevor Rogers battled through some control issues before leaving the game with an injury, and sloppy O’s defense and a flammable bullpen turned a once 1-0 lead into a lopsided defeat.
Normally, Orioles fans would be feeling pretty good about Trevor Rogers taking the mound, especially at a stadium literally called the Rogers Centre. He’s
gotta dominate here! It’s kismet! But something seemed a bit off about the lefty tonight, for reasons that would be explained later. After two of his expectedly dominant innings, things started to go off the rails in the third, when Rogers suddenly couldn’t find the strike zone. He walked Myles Straw on four pitches to lead off the inning. Two batters later, he walked George Springer on four pitches. Two batters after that, he walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on five pitches.
Walking the bases loaded? Who is this Trevor Rogers? He had never walked more than three batters in a game this season, and here he did it in a span of five batters. Fortunately, he escaped the bases-loaded jam on an Alejandro Kirk groundout, but it wouldn’t be the last time his lack of control would hurt him.
Meanwhile, the Orioles’ offense had little luck against Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt, who twirled five strong innings. The Birds plated their lone run thanks to a pair of 21-year-olds in the third, as Samuel Basallo roped a double and scored on Jackson Holliday’s RBI single. I could get used to seeing these two in the lineup for a long, long time. Unfortunately, though we didn’t know it at the time, those two hits would be the Orioles’ only two hits until there were two outs in the ninth inning. Yikes.
The Orioles really had only one other scoring threat, which came in the sixth when southpaw reliever Ryan Borucki walked both lefties he was summoned to face, Holliday and Gunnar Henderson. But with two outs, the O’s caught a bad break when Dylan Beavers’ screaming line drive went directly into the glove of first baseman Ty France. Seriously, that was a rocket. Just hit to the wrong place.
Back to Rogers. Despite his early missteps, he entered the fifth inning with a 1-0 lead, but more strike-throwing issues and bad Orioles defense conspired to lose the lead. After retiring the first two batters, Rogers made the mistake of walking Davis Schneider — his season-worst fourth walk — with Guerrero up next. Vladimir did what he does and blistered a scorcher into right-center field. Still, it would’ve been a harmless single had center fielder Colton Cowser picked up the ball cleanly. He did not. The ball rolled under Cowser’s glove and to the warning track, allowing Schneider to score the tying run all the way from first. Bleh. I think Colton has generally looked very good defensively since taking over in center field, but that was not his finest play.
Rogers got the last out of the fifth but didn’t return for the sixth, even though he’d thrown only 79 pitches. The Orioles soon revealed why: Rogers left the game with left toe discomfort. That could explain why his command was spotty. It doesn’t sound like a serious injury, although the O’s can afford to be cautious with Rogers with just a couple weeks remaining in this lost season.
Even in this shaky outing, Rogers still emerged with five innings and zero earned runs (and one unearned run due to Cowser’s error), lowering his season ERA to an incredible 1.43. Hopefully the toe injury won’t end his season early, but if it does, what a remarkable season Rogers had.
Everything else about the Orioles was less than remarkable on this night. Things got out of hand once the O’s bullpen got involved. The Jays took their first lead in the sixth thanks to more shoddy Orioles defense. With two outs, third baseman Emmanuel Rivera made a nifty backhanded stab of an Isiah Kiner-Falefa sizzler to third, but his throw to first got past Ryan Mountcastle, who frankly should’ve been able to scoop it. Kiner-Falefa was awarded second base, and he promptly scored on an RBI double by Straw, a historically terrible hitter who inexplicably has crushed the Orioles this year. Straw now has eight hits and seven RBIs in eight games against the Orioles this season. Reminder: he has a career .631 OPS.
The Blue Jays really poured it after that, scoring another run in the seventh on an Ernie Clement RBI single, then torching Shawn Dubin for three in the eighth, courtesy of Daulton Varsho’s two-run double and a Guerrero RBI single. Dubin had started his Orioles career with six scoreless appearances, but that came to an emphatic end in this disaster of an outing.
With the game hopelessly out of hand, the O’s offense went down quietly. Five Blue Jays relievers combined for four scoreless innings, and an uninspiring 6-1 loss was in the books. I suppose there’s a reason the Blue Jays are where they are in the standings, and the Orioles are where they are, too.
