Orioles fall by one as losing streak reaches five (with quotes)

TORONTO - There were defensive miscues, an injury to a catcher and it was another night of not much offense for the Orioles.

They lost 4-3 to the Toronto Blue Jays in the series opener in front of 28,401 at Rogers Centre. Three games behind the second wild card to start the night, they fall to 71-73. They are two games under .500 for the first time since they were 63-65 on Aug. 25.

The Orioles have scored just eight runs during a five-game losing streak. They are 27-43 on the road and 3-8 since the end of the recent seven-game win streak.

The Orioles lost catcher Welington Castillo to a groin injury in this game. He was hit by a foul ball in the first inning and was replaced by Caleb Joseph when the Orioles went on defense in the bottom of the second. The injury was announced by the Orioles as a contusion.

Earlier this year Castillo spent 10 days on the disabled list due to a testicular injury. He spent time in the emergency room May 30 after being hit in the groin by a ball in a game versus the Yankees, and returned after the 10-day DL period was up.

Toronto used three doubles and two Orioles outfield errors to lead 2-0 in the second. Toronto's Teoscar Hernandez led off the inning and hit a fly ball to right. Mark Trumbo charged in and didn't see the ball as it hit the turf fair well behind him and then bounced into foul territory. Near the stands Trumbo deflected the ball into the stands and the play was scored a double and an error. An RBI groundout by Ryan Goins made it 1-0.

No. 9 hitter Darwin Barney doubled to center and took third when Adam Jones dropped the ball as he was about to throw it back to the infield. That went as a double and Jones was charged with the error. When Richard Urena doubled to right, Barney scored for a 2-0 lead.

The Orioles kept getting close in this game, but they never did tie it. Manny Machado doubled in the fourth and scored on Jones' single and it was 2-1. But in the bottom of the inning Goins homered off Ubaldo Jiménez and it was a 3-1 lead.

But Trumbo's 400-foot homer to left in the fifth cut the Jays' lead to 3-2. Trumbo hit home run No. 23 and just his ninth on the road. But Toronto scored once in the sixth to lead 4-2 on an RBI infield hit by Barney. It was an inning where two infield hits and a hit batter led to a run. It also looked like pitcher Miguel Castro was late getting to first on Barney's grounder.

In the Orioles seventh, Joseph lined an RBI single to center to make it 4-3. The O's were within a run again on the hit that scored Trey Mancini, who walked and moved up a groundball.

Jiménez allowed six hits and three runs over five innings on 102 pitches. He takes the loss to fall to 5-10 with a 6.75 ERA. Winning pitcher Marco Estrada gave up two runs on four hits over five innings.

The Orioles struck out 12 times in the game and eight were called strike threes. They went 2-for-5 with a runners in scoring position, a very nice batting average for that stat, but they just didn't create many scoring chances for the night. With the tie run at second and one out in the ninth, reliever Dominic Leone struck out Davis and Trumbo to end it as the Orioles lost by a run for the second night in a row.

Manager Buck Showalter on Castillo: "He's at the hospital. Doctor on duty looked at him and they decided to get some tests. They are conducting those tests right now. He had the same issue before so, Richie (Bancells) and everybody wanted to be real cautious with it. Sometimes you feel better when you get away from it but he was struggling when he came in. We are going to err on the side of safety and see what the tests results come back."

Showalter on whether O's own miscues contribute to the loss: "Miscues? We had two or three swinging bunts and a ball that was in the twilight that no one could see. You can't control that. It's frustrating, guys are trying. Just a little snakebit tonight. I thought the pitching staff did a great job and deserved a lot better fate. But runs were at a premium. Estrada was good again and they did a nice job out of their bullpen. At least we got his pitch count up a little bit and got him out of there. No, I can't say miscues. You want to use the word cue, you should use it in a different context."

Showalter on if it's hard for the team to not to get down right now: "I think that is more what people who ask you questions about it have. We can't live in that world. It's not that way. It's frustrating. You are always trying to get in between the sense of urgency and you know, letting the game come to you a little bit. We're pushing. That is normal human tendency. Can't tell them not to care and not to try harder. It's just what they do. But, no, they don't need to be reminded by people every day. They know what is going on."

Jones on outfield errors: "You play the game hard, man, things happen. We just have to get back to the simple fundamentals. A tough ball to right (lost) in the dusk, a ball that slipped out of my hand in right center. These, they're not mental mistakes, they're physical mistakes. Just got to just get better. At the end of the day, we just have to win, and it's cliché the hell out of what you want to say, but it's Sept. 11. It's win time, so all that cliché crap can go out the window at this point. So we just need to win, point blank, simple, clear cut."

Jones on whether there's pressure on the team with the games dwindling: "Pressure? I really don't think we feel pressure. We're grown men. We're professionals. We've all been in this situation, which I think is really good for this experience. I think we know what needs to be done. It's not like it's 2012, when we didn't really have any idea at this point in the season what to expect. We're five years removed from that. I think we just understand that we just have to win. There's nothing else I can really say except if we win, I think winning solves everything heals everything, right? Time heals all wounds? Winning heals all wounds, too. Well, most of the them at least.

"We still have 20 games to go. Are we out of it? No. Do we need a boost? Yeah. Do we need to win? Yeah. So just handle our business. Is it easy? Do we think it's going to be easy? Do we think Toronto's just going to lay down and let us beat them? No, of course not. You come out here and you're got to play the game and win."