Mountcastle again mashes vs. Toronto and Norby hits first homer in O's win (updated)

TORONTO – Ryan Mountcastle likes hitting against Toronto and in Toronto. That point was reinforced again tonight as he hit a three-run homer to left in the Orioles' four-run third and later added another homer as they were on their way to their latest victory.

Mountcastle hit Nos. 9 and 10 as the Orioles beat the Blue Jays 10-1 to improve to 39-20. They have won five of six and 10 of their past 12 games. They are now 18-8 on the road.

Since being swept three straight in St. Louis, they are 10-2, scoring 75 runs. 

The Orioles have now gone 20 straight American League East series without losing one as they will at least split this four-game set after winning the last two nights. Their outstanding record in the division is now 13-4.

This game also featured the first major league hit and homer of Connor Norby's career. Playing his second big league game and having gone 0-for-6 in the bigs to that point, he hit a two-run shot to left in the eighth off right-hander Nate Pearson for a 10-1 lead. 

“Unreal," said Norby who did get the ball. "That was the coolest thing I’ve done playing baseball for sure. Tonight is going to be – I got a lot of sleep last night. I don’t know how much sleep I’ll get tonight after that one. But that’s pretty cool.”

“That was awesome," said Mountcastle. "The whole dugout was going nuts for him. Super happy for the kid. He’s having a great career. Super excited to see it."

Mountcastle’s two homers drove in five runs as he recorded his second multi-homer game of the year and 10^th of his career. Four of the 10 have come against Toronto and two of those four have come at Rogers Centre.

“Yeah, I just got a couple of good pitches to hit today," he said. "Just tried to drive in the runs and did. Got a great win for the team.

“Whenever you hit one off the bat (as far as his second) and you know it’s going, it’s always a good feeling. So to put one out there was pretty cool, yeah.”

Batting against an opener, right-hander Trevor Richards, the O’s did a lot of swinging and missing in the first two innings. Richards got nine whiffs, seven on his changeup and four strikeouts, in what was a scoreless game early on.

But despite what appeared to be a quite questionable umpire’s ruling, the Orioles rallied in the top of the third and Mountcastle’s blast was pivotal.

Lefty Genesis Cabrera started the inning and hit Colton Cowser in the middle of his back. One out later, Cowser got a big jump and was about to get a steal of second with catcher James McCann batting. But McCann was ruled to have interfered with the throw of Toronto catcher Danny Jansen. The O’s argued, but to no avail as McCann was called out and Cowser went back to first base.

But with two outs, Gunnar Henderson walked and Adley Rutschman’s single to center scored Cowser for the 1-0 lead and Rutschman’s 39^th RBI.

Right-hander Bowden Francis, activated off the inured list today, came on for Mountcastle in a right-on-right battle. But he hung a 2-1 curveball that Mountcastle hit 350 feet to left for three runs and a 4-0 lead. The ball would be a homer in just 16 of 30 major league parks. But in this one it gave Baltimore a four-run advantage.

The O’s struck quickly for three more in the fifth, when, with two outs, Henderson doubled (at 108 mph off the bat) and scored on another Rutschman single. It was 5-0. Two pitches later Mountcastle mashed a Francis fastball 443 feet for the seven-run lead. That would be a homer in all 30 parks. 

Mountcastle, who began play with a career .314 batting average, .586 slugging percentage and .962 OPS off Toronto pitching, now has 17 career homers off the Blue Jays. In 56 games, he has 48 RBIs as well. It was his eighth homer in his 24^th career game at Rogers Centre. In his career, Mountcastle has hit 19.3 percent of his home runs (17 of 88) against Toronto.

“That second one was hit," said Hyde. "He’s been taking really good at-bats all year. I’m so impressed with Mounty, how far he has come and how much he’s developed. The strike zone awareness is so much better now. Just a dangerous, dangerous hitter. Got a great feel for where the barrel is and has unbelievable power and he showed it tonight.”

Right-hander Corbin Burnes, fifth in the AL in ERA and looking for an eighth straight quality start at game time, was around on the mound for all this offense.

And he pitched well yet again.

Burnes recorded another quality start, his 10th, and allowed just one run over seven innings on 99 pitches. He improved to 6-2 and an ERA of 2.26 after a night where he fanned five and walked one.

Burnes has made five AL East starts on the year and is 3-1 with a 1.36 ERA. 

He took a shutout on three hits into the Toronto seventh, but George Springer hit a solo blast 411 feet to get the Blue Jays on the board. 

“Gave up one run, only in the seventh inning there," Hyde said. "Just in total command. Incredible stuff. He’s throwing 98, 99 mph sinkers, in on those right-handers. Great cutter. Just was a fantastic performance going seven innings for us.

“We got some timely hitting and some big home runs. Total complete game from us.”

After hitting four homers to tie a season high last night, the O’s add three tonight. They began the day leading the majors at 1.52 homers per game to 1.48 for the Yankees.

Baltimore is now 26-3 when hitting two or more home runs.

Anthony Santander's RBI double provided the eighth run for the Orioles as he blasted a ball 109 mph in the seventh for an 8-0 lead. Norby's homer completed the O's scoring. 

The Orioles have scored 17 runs in two nights at Rogers Centre, a building where they went 0-10 in 2018. But now they are 9-1 in their past 10 games here with a plus-39 run differential. 

Mountcastle has had big nights before in Toronto and seemed to have more trouble explaining why that is than he did during the game. Tonight was the latest such occasion.

“They’re a good team," he said. "And, yeah, just grateful got a couple of good hits today and in the past. Going to try and keep it going."