Wade Miley on his outing, J.J. Hardy on the loss to Toronto

Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy homered and singled in three at-bats tonight - and that was half of the club's hits as the Orioles went 4-for-30 as a team in a 5-1 loss to Toronto.

Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada has had a strong year, but he had given up 11 runs in nine innings in his last two starts. But that trend did not continue in this game to open a key three-game series. He went seven innings plus a batter, allowing one run, to pick up his eighth win. He is 3-1 with an ERA of 3.17 in eight career starts against Baltimore.

"I don't think it's just tonight - I think we've had trouble with him for a while," Hardy said. "He locates his pitches and his fastball is sneaky. He can elevate, he can pitch down with it and his changeup is a really tough pitch. Obviously, these games are important. But we've got to go out there and not put too much pressure on ourselves. They're big games, but we just have to go out there and try to win."

With their fourth loss in five games and ninth in the last 14 contests, the Orioles have fallen four games out of first place. That is their biggest deficit of the year from the top spot.

"Well, I know everyone in this clubhouse knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we're not going to give up," Hardy said. "We are going out every night trying to win and that's what we've got to do."

It was particularly frustrating to see the team get such a strong outing from Wade Miley but score just once.

"It's very disappointing," Hardy said. "We want to go out there and win for all of our pitchers. He was pitching really good and really fast. You get through seven innings giving up three runs, he gave us a chance to win. We just didn't score."

The inconsistent Orioles offense was on the down side again.

"I always tip my cap to the pitchers," Hardy said. "There are pretty good pitchers in this league. Obviously, we are pretty good hitters in this clubhouse. But we've just been inconsistent. If somebody knew how to be more consistent throughout the whole season, I wish they'd tell us."

Miley went seven innings, the longest of his six starts with the Orioles. He gave up five hits and three runs with two walks and nine strikeouts. His night included five three-up and out innings. He also allowed two solo homers in a 112-pitch outing, one to Josh Donaldson and one to Jose Bautista.

"I felt like I threw the ball a lot better," Miley said. "Had better command of my fastball. Made a couple of mistakes to Donaldson. Both the first and second at-bat. I got lucky on the first one when (Nolan) Reimold made a great play. The second one, just didn't locate the fastball.

"At times I was in a pretty good rhythm out there. It's a good feeling for any starting pitcher to run back out there (to pitch seven innings) like that. I'm just trying every five days to give us a chance to win. Keep working during my side day and hopefully I can give us a chance every five."

Miley was asked about the Orioles falling four games out of first place.

"Just have to play ball," he said. "We've got plenty of games left with Toronto. It's in our own hands right how. We've got to win ballgames."

Tonight's attendance was just 15,532 and that included a contingent of Toronto fans. Hardy was asked about the turnout for the opener of this big division series.

"I don't know," he said. I"t's a Monday night. There are a lot of stadiums that don't fill up on a Monday night. Obviously, when our fans come out, it's a lot of fun to play in front of them."