Hess duplicates success, Mancini has five RBIs in 7-0 win

One way for the Orioles to learn more about David Hess tonight was to observe whether the Blue Jays figured out the rookie starter.

Hess was facing the Jays for the third time this season, but in back-to-back outings following last week's series at Rogers Centre. Can't sneak up on a team under these circumstances.

Familiarity didn't breed a beating for Hess, who tossed six scoreless innings and watched Trey Mancini drive in five runs in the Orioles' 7-0 win over the Blue Jays before an announced crowd of 15,436 at Camden Yards.

Chris Davis broke a scoreless tie in the sixth by hitting into a force play with the bases loaded and no outs. Mancini followed with his three-run shot off Sam Gaviglio and the Orioles' losing streak ended at eight games. They're 38-94 overall, 22-44 at home and 2-12 versus the Blue Jays.

Cedric Mullins led off the inning with a single and Jonathan Villar reached on a bunt hit. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Adam Jones was issued an intentional walk while ahead 3-0 in the count. Mullins scored on Davis' grounder to second baseman Devon Travis, who made a lunging stop.

Mancini has homered in consecutive games to raise his total to 19. He launched an 88 mph sinker to right-center field, and he wasn't done. He added a two-run double off Danny Barnes in the seventh to tie his career high in RBIs - June 7, 2017 against the Pirates - and scored on Tim Beckham's single for a 7-0 lead.

Hess held the Jays to four hits in his six scoreless innings, walking two batters, striking out five and tying his career high with 99 pitches - the same total he logged on June 7 in Toronto. The Jays went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded six while Hess was in the game.

The schedule was set up to give Hess consecutive starts against the Jays. It wasn't part of some master plan hatched by manager Buck Showalter. But he offered his full endorsement of it.

"That's a good thing for us as far as evaluation," Showalter said before the game. "You get a lot of ambushes this time of year, where a team hasn't seen somebody, especially young guys, and they come up and they ambush, so to speak. You get a day game on the road on getaway day and you could make a mistake of getting too much positive feeding frenzy, I call it. And on the flip side of that, you get too much negative frenzy on a guy. But it's always a good look when a guy sees somebody close together, back-to-back.

"I look at it as a great evaluation tool because we know what Gaviglio is going to do tonight. We knew what (Luis) Severino's going to do. But the good ones can still do it, you know? So, I'm hoping that David can continue having a better delivery and locating the ball better tonight. To me, it's a good evaluation tool."

Hess shut out the Jays through the first six innings last week in Toronto before Kendrys Morales hit a solo home run in the seventh. He struck out Morales in the first inning tonight to win an eight-pitch battle and retire the side in order.

The slider also froze Justin Smoak to open the second inning and got a swinging third strike against Randal Grichuk. Hess retired the first seven batters, seven fewer than his opening streak in Wednesday's game.

Morales also grounded out, walked and struck out to deny him a piece of the consecutive-games home run record.

Luke Maile singled with one out in the third and Hess stranded him. Billy McKinney led off the fourth with a double into the right field corner and moved to third base with one out, but Hess got a called third strike on Smoak and retired Grichuk on a liner to left.

Smoak froze on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, a changeup that plate umpire Marty Foster thought caught the lower outside corner of the strike zone. Grichuk made solid contact on a 94 mph fastball and hit it directly at Jace Peterson.

Russell Martin doubled with one out in the fifth and Maile walked. Travis lined out and Curtis Granderson grounded out to leave Hess at 79 pitches.

Morales walked with one out in the sixth and Grichuk doubled with two outs, but Aledmys Díaz grounded out. Hess also struck out Smoak looking at a 71 mph curveball.

Smoak could not get the bat off his shoulder tonight.

Hess also faced the Jays on May 25 and shut them out over 6 2/3 innings, so they should have a thorough scouting report on him.

The Orioles had early scoring chances against Gaviglio, who also faced them in his previous start and allowed two runs in seven innings. Villar walked with one out in the first and was erased on a double play. Davis led off the second with a single and was stranded on third base, with Travis' diving stop and throw robbing Beckham to keep the game scoreless. Caleb Joseph and Villar singled in the third and were stranded.

Villar stole second base to put both runners in scoring position. He's 20-for-22 in stolen-base attempts this season and has been successful in his last 12.

Miguel Castro retired the side in order in the seventh, Paul Fry survived back-to-back singles to open the eighth and Mychal Givens locked up the team's sixth shutout.

Hess has allowed only three runs in his last three starts, covering 19 innings. He's registered three quality starts in a row.

Murphy Smith entered the game for Toronto in the seventh and became the oldest player in club history to make his major league debut, at 31 years and two days.