Toronto bashes five homers and O's lose homestand opener

Orioles right-hander Asher Wojciechowski has pitched well this year against a few teams, but Toronto is not one of them. Blue Jays righty Trent Thornton has been hit hard for four of his last five starts, but not the one against the Orioles.

Those forces collided tonight - Wojciechowski did not do well and Thornton did, as Toronto beat the Orioles 11-2 to start a four-game series and 10-game homestand.

After completing a 5-4 West Coast trip the O's were hammered to begin the homestand. They had won four of six and eight of 13 to begin this series, with a 14-13 record since June 28. They were also 5-4 versus Toronto at the start of the night after going 5-14 in 2018.

But after promising starts against Boston and the Los Angeles Angels, Wojciechowski gave up six hits, four runs and two homers over 4 1/3 innings. He falls to 2-4 with an ERA of 4.15 after a 90-pitch start.

In his last two games against the Red Sox and Angels, he had yielded just four hits and two runs over 14 1/3 innings. But in two starts against Toronto he's allowed seven runs over nine frames.

Toronto scored in every inning from the third through the sixth to build an 8-1 lead. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run homer in the third, RBI double in the sixth and long homer to left in the eighth for a 9-1 lead. Catcher Danny Jansen blasted a 430-foot three-run homer in the sixth when Toronto turned a 4-1 lead into an 8-1 cushion. In the ninth, Billy McKinney hit Toronto's fifth homer of the night, a two-run shot off Dillon Tate.

Guerrero went 3-for-5 with two homers and four RBIs. He hit Nos. 12 and 13. The first went 405 feet and the second went 450 feet to left, leaving the bat at 113.6 mph. It's his second career multi-homer game.

Thornton got the win, allowing one run over six and is 4-7 with an ERA of 5.23. Over his past five starts, in the four games not against Baltimore, he had allowed 21 runs in 10 1/3 innings.

Baltimore pitchers have allowed 20 homers over the last six games and 212 for the season. Jimmy Yacabonis allowed four runs in one inning and Tate gave up three runs over three innings.

The Orioles scored their first run on Jonathan Villar's RBI groundout in the fifth. It scored Hanser Alberto, who was hit by a pitch to start the inning. The O's had scored 83 runs over the previous 13 games. But this year, when the O's score four or less, they are 8-56.

In the Baltimore eighth, Trey Mancini's solo shot to right-center made it 9-2 and gave him a career-best 25 homers. He had hit 24 each in 2017 and 2018. Mancini drove a 1-0 fastball 395 feet.

Toronto (44-67) has won four in a row after a series sweep of Kansas City before coming here. They are 10-10 since the break and 15-15 their past 30 games. The Blue Jays began the night with 74 homers since June 16, tied with Minnesota for most in the majors. Then they padded that during the game.