Austin Hays homers twice as O's take road trip opener at Toronto (updated)

TORONTO – Once a very tough place for the Orioles to get wins, Toronto’s Rogers Centre saw the Birds go 6-1 last year, on their way to going 10-3 against the Blue Jays in 2023.

The Orioles enjoyed their first visit north of the border this year as well.

Austin Hays produced his first two homers of the season and Anthony Santander added a two-run shot – all off former Oriole Kevin Gausman – and later Ramón Urías got one as the O’s beat Toronto 7-2 in the opener to the series and road trip.

The Orioles improved to 38-20 for the season and to 17-8 in road games as they opened a four-game series here. The eight-game trip will next take the team to St. Petersburg, Fla. to face Tampa Bay.

Hays, swinging it much better in recent weeks with his stats slowly trending up, hit a two-run shot in the fourth and added a solo blast in the seventh. He had not homered all year and not since last Sept. 18 at Houston, which also was his last two-homer game. It was the sixth multi-homer game of his career.

The offense made a winning pitcher of right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, who allowed one earned run over 6 2/3 innings. He improved to 6-2 with a 3.28 ERA while throwing 86 pitches.

Rodriguez allowed seven hits and two runs with no walks and four strikeouts in his 10^th start of the season. The Orioles are 7-3 in those games.

The Orioles scored first with the roof open at Rogers Centre.

Santander’s two-run homer to right on an 0-2 pitch gave Baltimore a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. After Gausman retired the Birds on just 12 pitches in the first inning, he issued a leadoff walk in the second to Ryan O’Hearn ahead of Santander’s blast.

Santander fell behind 0-2 in the count and hit a high fastball that was 96 mph and was even a bit above the strike zone. He still got to the pitch and turned it around on a liner to right. The ball was hit 105.4 mph off the bat and cleared the fence, going 359 feet.

It was Santander’s 11^th homer, and his second in three games and fourth in the past 10 games. That made him 3-for-13 in his career off Gausman, and all three hits were homers.

Toronto got one run back in the home second. George Springer reached with two outs and none on via a throwing error by shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Then Daulton Varsho followed with an RBI triple. It was a 2-1 O’s lead.

Santander also helped along the O’s three-run rally in the fourth off Gausman with a one-out single to left. With two outs, Colton Cowser’s 400-foot double off the left-center field wall scored him for Cowser's 26^th RBI and a 3-1 edge. The next batter was Hays, who drilled a 2-2 splitter out to left to give the O’s had a 5-1 lead.

Hays' first homer of the year came in his 81^st at-bat. Hays drilled that ball 105.7 mph and hit it 399 feet for his 64^th career home run. Hays’ homer would have been gone in 29 of 30 parks but, ironically, not in Baltimore. Luckily, the O’s are not playing there tonight.

He got No. 65 three innings later when he drilled a first-pitch fastball a distance of 405 feet off a 107.6 mph exit velocity.

Second baseman Connor Norby made his major league debut tonight and went 0-for-3 before being replaced on defense to start the home seventh. Norby fanned in both the second and fourth and flied to left in the O’s seventh inning.

The Orioles are now 12-4 in American League East games and are 14-6 in series-opening games.

When Urías connected on a longball to left in the ninth, the Orioles had their third four-homer game of the year and second in three games. They have hit 88 homers for the season. 

Gausman allowed six runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings, falling to 4-4 with a 4.60 ERA. He had allowed just five homers all season over 11 starts before yielding a season-high three tonight. 

Winners of four of five and nine of their past 11 games overall, one more win in this series of four games would ensure at least a split for the Orioles. They have gone 19 straight AL East series without losing one, winning 14 and logging five ties. 

Toronto (28-31) entered this series playing well, with five wins its last six games and going 9-5 over the previous 14 contests.

Manager Brandon Hyde impressed with Rodriguez's outing: “For me, that’s his best start of the year. He was ahead of hitters 22 times. No walks. Into the seventh inning. That his best command I’ve seen him have. Really, from the third inning on last start. Carried into this start and absolutely fantastic."

Hyde said it all starts with fastball command: “No doubt. No doubt. He got ahead of 27 hitters, 22 times. And a good club in a good place to hit. That’s tough to do. You don’t see him reaching him back trying to throw 100 every single pitch. It’s a lot of 95 to 97, which is still firm, with ride and carry. He can do things when he gets ahead of hitters. A ton of at-bats that were three pitches or less, and that’s going to be a key for any of these guys to go deep into games."

Hyde on Hays: “Haysie, great to see him after a tough start play with some edge right now. Playing to compete, to win, taking some really, really good swings and providing some offense for us.

Rodriguez, what made the command so good?: "Really, just trying to get ahead in the count. I wanted to be as efficient as possible and pitch as deep into that game as I could. That's where it started."

Hays on his night, how big for him?: "Feels really good. I've been confident since I came off the IL. Been swinging it really good, and I swung it good through my rehab. So, it's just starting to show up now."

Hays on staying patient/confident when he wasn't hitting: "As I've said, before I got hurt and hurt my calf, that was a rough 30 at-bats or so. I started swinging the bat pretty good, hitting the ball hard and then I got hurt. I had time to put my strength and size back on that I had lost when I got sick towards the end of spring training. I really started feeling like myself and now I am able to drive the ball like I was before I lost that weight. So I'm feeling good."