John Means makes progress, but tough ending for O's

On a night that the Orioles lost another close game, lefty starter John Means took at least a small step forward. But Toronto beat the Orioles 5-4 in 10 innings as they fall to 0-4 against the Blue Jays and 14-17 for the season.

O's killer Randal Grichuk blasted a two-run homer to center with two outs in the 10th off right-hander Cole Sulser. Sulser's cutter found too much of the plate and Grichuk did it again against the Orioles. Grichuk has 13 RBIs in five games versus the O's.

So close to winning, the O's suffered a walk-off loss. Grichuk has five homers in four games this year versus the Orioles and 12 in 17 games since the beginning of the 2019 season.

Hanser Alberto's bloop single in the top of the 10th had given Baltimore a 4-3 lead. He went 4-for-5 and is batting .331.

The Orioles lost by two runs and by one run to start this road trip against Tampa Bay. They have now lost nine of 11 games. In those nine losses, four have been by one run and one game by two runs.

It didn't get ruined by what happened in the fourth inning - maybe tarnished a bit - but Means was mostly good tonight in his longest outing of the 2020 season. If the Orioles are to hang around the .500 mark through the second half, they will need to see their ace pitch as he did in the first three innings tonight.

Means, showing heavy use of a mid-90s fastball, overcame a high pitch count first inning to put up three zeros to start his outing tonight. But what happened on the first two pitches of the fourth kept his outing from being much better. He gave up solo homers to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Teoscar Hernández. Guerrero hit No. 5 to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Hernández blasted No. 12 and hit it 430 feet to center to go back-to-back on two pitches.

Hernández now has hit five homers 110 mph or more to tie for the major league lead. The homer tonight was his fifth in eight games and eighth in his past 16.

But for Means it was at least a small step forward. He threw 74 pitches and may be in line to throw 90-plus his next time out, which gets him about as built up as the rest of the rotation starting with that outing.

Over four innings, he gave up four hits and two runs with one walk and three strikeouts. He lowered his ERA from 10.13 to 8.59. Still not great, but hopefully tonight he started trending in the right direction.

He got a 1-2-3 last of the first, but it took a taxing 25 pitches. Toronto hit eight foul balls that inning and just eight more in his other three innings. Cavan Biggio struck out on a 95 mph fastball, the sixth pitch he saw. Grichuk, who hit four homers and drove in 11 in three games in Baltimore, grounded out on the 11th pitch. Guerrero flied out on the eighth pitch.

Means pitched a 1-2-3 second and stranded two runners in the Jays third. The homers marred the outing, but progress was made for the pitcher that finished second for the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2019.

Means has been trying to get a feel for his changeup this year and it appeared tonight was the not the night for that. On the year, he was averaging throwing his fastball 47 percent and tonight he used it 55 percent. He had been throwing his changeup 34 percent and tonight used that pitch just 22 percent of the time.

Means has given up four homers in seven innings in his past two games and six on the year in 14 2/3 innings. That is a homer rate of 3.68 per nine. Last year, he allowed 1.3 homers per every nine innings.

The Orioles will try for their first win on this trip on Saturday night. Right-hander Alex Cobb (1-2, 3.73 ERA) faces new Blue Jays pitcher Taijuan Walker (2-2, 4.00 ERA).