Chris Davis on the offense that kept coming back, plus other O's-Jays notes

Before yesterday, the last time an Orioles starting pitcher lasted just 1/3 of an inning was on July 20, 2011 and that pitcher was Zach Britton. Sunday, right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez got just one out in the shortest start of his career as the Orioles lost to Toronto 10-9.

The Orioles scored six runs Saturday and lost and scored nine yesterday and lost. They scored 24 runs and hit 12 home runs at Rogers Centre but lost the last three games of the series after Thursday's 6-5 win.

The Orioles and the Blue Jays have played seven times in 2016 and Toronto leads the season series four wins to three. Six of the seven games have been decided by one run.

It was a day where O's pitchers continued to struggle and their hitters kept coming back. Trailing 5-0 after an inning and 7-1 after three innings, the Orioles pulled to within 7-6 in the sixth. Trailing 10-6 in the eighth, the Orioles closed to within 10-9 on a Pedro Alvarez sac fly near the wall in right in the ninth. A few more feet and maybe the Orioles would have pulled off an amazing comeback win. Instead they suffered a frustrating loss. But they kept coming back and kept hitting home runs - they bashed five on the day.

"That is something positive to take away from the series," Chris Davis said of the Orioles' resilient offense. "Anytime you are playing a division opponent you want to see what they are made of and give them a good fight and I feel like we did that.

"A loss is never fun, no matter how you take it. But we're not going to hang our head over it. We'll continue to move forward and press on and make the adjustments we need to make."

Davis looked locked in at the plate over the weekend. He has now homered in five straight games, going 7-for-17 in that span with five homers and 10 RBIs. Only two players in O's team history have homered in six consecutive games, Davis and Reggie Jackson. Davis did that from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2, 2012 and Jackson from July 18-23, 1976.

The Orioles and Boston Red Sox are both 36-26 and tied for first in the AL East. They begin a three-game series Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

More notes from a wild weekend in Toronto:

* Orioles starting pitchers allowed 17 runs (16 earned) over 17 1/3 innings in the series. The O's bullpen allowed 13 runs in 16 2/3 innings. Over the past two games, the O's bullpen gave up 12 runs over 10 2/3 innings. In the two games, the bullpen ERA for the season increased from 2.62 to 3.00.

* Over the four games the O's staff allowed 30 runs, 45 hits and seven homers. In the last two games of the series the Orioles allowed 21 runs as the team ERA rose from 3.91 to 4.14.

* The Orioles hit 12 homers in the four-game series and eight of them were solo home runs. Over the last seven games the O's have hit 19 home runs and they have 30 homers over the last 11 games.

* Sunday's Blue Jays starter and winning pitcher Aaron Sanchez had allowed four home runs in 12 starts and 80 1/3 innings this year coming into Sunday's game. Then he gave up a career-high four home runs in five innings.

* Even after losing the last three games, the Orioles are 8-4 in June.

* Toronto is 12-2 in its last 14 games versus AL East teams. The Blue Jays have won six of their last seven series, going 16-7 in that time.

* The Orioles have allowed 10 or more runs in consecutive games for the first time since May 17-18, 2013 against Tampa Bay. They have allowed 10+ runs four times in 2016.

* Before Saturday, Toronto was 1-15 this year when allowing six or more runs. But they won while doing that both Saturday and Sunday.

* Adam Jones produced his 10th career multi-homer game and his second this year (also June 2 versus Boston). Jones has 204 homers with the Orioles and is five behind Brady Anderson for sixth on the club's all-time list.