More homers, more solid pitching and more success against AL East teams

TORONTO – The Orioles are eight games into a stretch of 14 consecutive games versus AL East opponents. With how well this team now plays within its own division, this is good news.

And with Tuesday’s 10-1 blowout win at Rogers Centre over Toronto, the Orioles are now 6-2 in this stretch versus Boston, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Tampa Bay.

The Orioles are 13-4 (.765) against AL East clubs this year. For just the second time in team history they have won 13 of their first 17 division games. That also happened in 2005.

The Birds just keep hitting since they got swept at St. Louis and scored eight runs total in those three games.

They are now 10-2 the past 12 games. They have scored 17 runs this series, 29 in the last four games, 52 in eight games and 75 runs in those past 12 games. In this span they have 118 hits, including 22 home runs and are batting .280 with an OPS of .844.

They’ve hit seven homers this series and 12 in the last four games. They are now 26-3 when they hit two or more in a game.

Manager Brandon Hyde sees a lineup really surging right now and even some of the earlier struggling hitters are getting it going.

“Well good teams, it’s not going to be two or three guys a night,” Hyde said. “It’s going to change on a nightly basis because we have a lot of talent and guys that can do some things. And, we have a nice pass-the-baton approach with the next guy up. Grind out at-bats. You never know who is going to be the guy that gets the big hit.

“And I really like our approach right now. We’re getting on balls in the middle part of the plate. I thought we took a ton of great swings tonight and we hit a ton of balls hard (Monday) that we were kind of unlucky. And tonight, a lot of those balls fell.”

On the mound, right-hander Corbin Burnes delivered his eighth straight quality start going seven innings and giving up one run as he is now 6-2 with a 2.26 ERA.

Burnes has pitched well versus Toronto twice now but each time the Blue Jays worked to not strike out when he got into put away counts.

“When we got to two (strikes), same kind of thing when we faced them last time. They were really protecting with two strikes, trying to put the ball in play. So, we kind of got creative and did some things we didn’t normally do. It kind of turned things back in our favor.”

Burnes is really rolling now with an ERA of 1.38 his past four starts and 1.97 his last eight. Despite those numbers he feels there is still another level he can get to this year.

“Yeah absolutely. I always think there are ways to improve. Whether it’s location, whether it’s sequencing. That is the kind of stuff we are digging into. We did some stuff tonight that opened some doors for the rest of the year. Yeah, I always think there are plenty of things to work on. Same goes for this stretch where we are throwing the ball well. Lot of room to improve,” Burnes said.

Burnes has not allowed more than three runs in 15 consecutive outings, dating back to last season, matching Kodai Senga for longest active streak in MLB. In his 10 career starts against AL East opponents he has posted a 1.31 ERA (10 ER/68.2 IP), his lowest mark against any division.

Canadian Mountie: Ryan Mountcastle’s two-homer game was the 10^th multi-homer game of his career and fourth versus Toronto. In 56 career games against the Blue Jays, he has hit 17 homers with 48 RBIs.

“I feel good,” he said. “I’ve been getting good pitches to hit and not trying to expand too much. Just going up there with a game plan each day and trying to execute it.”

In 24 career games at Rogers Centre, Mountcastle has gone 29-for-91 (.319) with seven doubles, eight home runs, 26 RBIs and a 1.044 OPS.

Norby’s night: Playing his second big league game, Connor Norby’s first MLB hit, after an 0-6 start, was a two-run homer to left center in the eighth.

“Unreal. That was the coolest thing I’ve done playing baseball for sure,” said Norby of his 370-foot shot off Nate Pearson’s 2-1 slider that found too much plate.

Norby is the 12^th Oriole in team history that hit a homer as his first MLB hit. Gunnar Henderson did it too, but the last before Tuesday was Heston Kjerstad last Sept. 15.

Norby said some of the nerves from his first game had worn off by last night.

”I felt better as the game went on (Monday). Third at-bat (Monday) I felt like I settled in a little bit. I kind of had a feeling today during BP, like I felt more normal. You still get butterflies and obviously I was still amped up. But I was putting up better at-bats, I was taking pitches. If I am in swing mode, I’m usually setting myself up pretty well. If I am in take mode like (Monday) probably not going to do too good. Got a pitch to hit. Was pretty cool.”

Then came that big reception from his teammates in the dugout.

“It’s awesome. I didn’t know if the silent treatment was coming or what was going to happen. This is an amazing clubhouse. I mean we spent spring training together, so I know all of them. They’ve all been awesome since I’ve been here.”

To cap off a great night for Norby, he got the baseball from that homer.

“Probably give it to my parents, because I’ll lose it. It’s going in a case somewhere,” he said.

The Orioles have now gone 20 straight series against AL East teams without losing one as they have at least split this one.

Their starting pitchers have allowed two earned runs or less 16 times the past 20 games with an ERA of 2.51 in that time.

The Birds are 9-1 in their past 10 games at Rogers Centre with a run differential of plus-39. This dates to their last game in Toronto at the end of the 2022 season.

The Orioles are 13-4 versus Toronto since the start of last year and 22-14 since the 2022 season.