O's end promising first road trip on the short end

TORONTO - As the season's first road trip came to an end with a loss today, the Orioles looked back on the first six games and saw plenty of positive and encouraging signs. Now they're excited to bring their team home to play in front of their home fans for the first time on Thursday.

Blanked today on three hits heading to the ninth, they battled back on Trey Mancini's three-run homer to center. But they lost 5-3 to Toronto in front of 11,436 at Rogers Centre. Still, they're heading to Baltimore with two series road wins already under their belts and with a 4-2 record through New York and Toronto.

It's a big difference for a team that lost 115 games during a 2018 season that included three road series wins all year.

'I think when you win two series in a row, you feel pretty good," manager Brandon Hyde said of his team's start. "You keep winning series and good things happen. I feel really good about how our club played this week. I just like how we play. I think we're playing for each other, and that's fantastic, and I think our guys are playing to win every single night and the effort has been awesome. Good first week of the season."

Added right-hander Nate Karns, who allowed one unearned run in two innings as the opener again today: "It's not disappointing. We won two series. There is no stopping us. There is fight in us. If we can continue that through the course of the season, games like today we'll eventually pull out. You know, it's tough to lose on the last game of the trip, but we won both series. That is something to be proud of and carry on going home."

The Orioles were shut down today for seven innings by Blue Jays right-hander Matt Shoemaker. He threw seven scoreless innings in his first start as well. Today he limited the Orioles to two hits and fanned eight over 92 pitches.

"Just changed speeds, veteran guy that knows how to pitch, works every quadrant of the strike zone well, but his split is an equalizer," said Hyde. "It's just really hard because it's a fastball out of the hand that just dies at the end. We just had a tough time with everything, and he elevates his fastball and it gets on you. He did the same thing to Detroit five days ago. He just pitched really, really well."

Down 5-0 to the ninth, Dwight Smith Jr. and Jonathan Villar singled ahead of Mancini's third homer. He hit Daniel Hudson's 96 mph fastball 425 feet with an exit velocity of 112 mph. Through six games, Mancini is batting .417/.400/.833, going 10-for-24 with six runs and eight RBIs. No other player on the team has more than three RBIs.

Moving forward, the O's need to get more players going on offense. Chris Davis is 0-for-14 and the trio of Davis, Richie Martin and Cedric Mullins is a combined 2-for-45.

The O's allowed their first unearned run of the season this afternoon on a throwing error in the first by third baseman Rio Ruiz. It put a blemish on Karns' two innings, but he fanned four, throwing 32 pitches, and his fastball touched 93 mph.

"I feel good about it," Karns said of his second game with the team. "I was able to throw strikes definitely much better than the last time out. And I felt like I put my team in a good position with those two innings. It's early, but you know, we've got to get to the point where I get stretched out and I feel comfortable going more than just two. I always want to go back out there, but at the same time, you know, I'm not quite ready for that. It's early in the season, so take it step by step and we'll eventually get there."

Right-hander Matt Wotherspoon helped out a tired bullpen by pitching two innings today after Jimmy Yacabonis allowed one run in 2 1/3 innings and Richard Bleier threw a scoreless 1 2/3 innings. His contract was selected from Triple-A Norfolk before the game as right-hander Pedro Araujo was designated for assignment. Wotherspoon allowed three runs including Randal Grichuk's second homer of the day as Toronto extended a 2-0 lead to 5-0 lead in the eighth scoring three. Those prove to be big runs when Mancini homered in the ninth.

"I was trying to ride him out, yeah," Hyde said of Wotherspoon. "If it got a little closer, there were a couple other guys I was going to go to, but I was trying to stay away from a majority of guys in our 'pen to be honest with you, because it's been a taxing week. We have one game tomorrow, then the off-day which is going to be huge."

After the game the Orioles optioned Wotherspoon to Triple-A Norfolk. That opens a roster spot for right-hander Alex Cobb to come off the injured list tomorrow and start at Camden Yards.

So the Orioles, who went 0-12-1 in their last 13 road series in 2018, start 2-0 in road series in 2019. They are 4-2 away from Camden Yards after beginning last season 3-17 in the first 20 road games.

Now they look forward to playing in front of cheering fans in Baltimore, when they open the home season Thursday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. against the New York Yankees.