New faces can't keep O's from familiar place in 5-2 loss (updated)

The roster churn that presents one of the defining qualities of the Orioles' 2021 season freshened the lineup this morning and expanded the bench. It could not, however, improve the won-lost record.

Jorge López threw 100 pitches in 4 2/3 innings, the third time through the order bruising him in the fifth, and the Blue Jays won 5-2 in Buffalo to claim the series.

The Orioles are 24-54 and have lost 22 of 23 road games as they board their flight to Houston.

López was done after Cavan Biggio's two-out, two-strike, two-run double in the fifth, the 10th hit allowed by the right-hander giving the Blue Jays a 5-2 lead.

Their two-out damage the last few days has been extensive.

"I thought Lopie got squeezed a little early and that hurt him," manager Brandon Hyde said on his Zoom call.

"Biggio hits an 0-2 fly ball that the wind takes, so that was unfortunate. Almost got out of that inning, which we would have left down 3-2. Did his best to keep us in it. Trying to push some of our starters to go a little deeper, just because we need to survive this and have our bullpen guys helped out a little bit. Just couldn't quite get through five today."

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run double in the third inning, a leadoff walk to Reese McGuire costly. The Blue Jays had runners on first and second with one out when Guerrero smoked a ground ball past third base and down the line. Guerrero tried to score on Biggio's single that followed George Springer's two-out walk, but DJ Stewart threw him out at the plate.

The safe call was overturned after a review. Nice tag by Austin Wynns.

The Orioles have allowed 71 runs in the third this season, the most in the majors and their highest total in any inning.

Asked whether the wind made it harder to pitch, López replied, "Every day is a hard day to pitch."

"Especially today, you've got a lot of wind, so I was taking more time every pitch," he said. "An example is playing golf. Every shot, it's windy, you don't know if you're going to do that the right way. I just want to make every pitch consistent with good execution."

Maikel Franco led off the fifth with a single and scored on Ramón Urías' double to left-center field. Urias was playing his first game with the Orioles since June 6 and second since May 15.

Ryan McKenna started in center field for Cedric Mullins, who sat on the bench but advanced to Phase 2 of the All-Star voting for finishing in the top nine among American League outfielders.

Mullins has received 729,543 votes to move up to seventh. He was 10th a couple of weeks ago.

The next round of voting begins at noon Monday.

Ryan Mountcastle certainly has a shot at American Leagu Rookie of the Month for June. He gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead today by hitting his 13th home run, concluding a 13-pitch at-bat in the first inning.

Mountcastle began the day slashing .341/.385/.624 in 22 games this month. Today marked his eighth home run, 11th extra-base hit and 21st RBI.

"Honestly, I haven't really been changing much out of my routine," Mountcastle said. "I know how they're trying to attack me and just trying to stay with my approach."

López loaded the bases with no outs in the second inning on a single and two walks but allowed only one run on Oriole killer Randal Grichuk's 6-4-3 double play - executed by the new double play combination of Urías and Domingo Leyba. The Blue Jays challenged the call at second base and lost.

It gave umpire Joe West more airtime, so not a total waste.

McKenna's return to the Orioles included an infield hit in the fifth, but the Orioles stranded two runners while down 3-2. He singled in the seventh to put two runners on base, Mountcastle walked with two outs - his fifth in four games - and pinch-hitter Trey Mancini bounced to new reliever Tim Mayza.

"You see less chase," Hyde said of Mountcastle. "You see him taking some borderline pitches off that he was swinging at a month or two ago and getting himself in disadvantaged counts."

The first two batters reached against Ross Stripling in the sixth on singles by Stewart and Austin Hays. Patrick Murphy entered the game to face Leyba, the 44th player used by the Orioles this summer. Leyba struck out and Franco grounded into a double play.

So I'm saying the Orioles had a chance. In multiple innings. But they were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position through the seventh.

"Didn't get the big hit today," Hyde said. "I thought we took some good at-bats. McKenna came up here and took some nice at-bats, Ramón Urías took some good at-bats. Mountcastle continues to improve, take walks, hit a homer. So, yeah, we did have opportunities, we just didn't cash in.

"And honestly, only giving up five runs with the way the wind (was), blowing straight out to left field, you'd expect this to be more of a high-scoring ballgame, but we had a tough time scoring runs."

Rule 5 pick Tyler Wells stranded an inherited runner after replacing López and tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings. He's allowed two runs this month in 13 2/3 innings.

Dillon Tate struck out five batters in two hitless innings.

"I thought Dillon Tate and Wellsy were highlights today," Hyde said.

Asked more about Tate, Hyde said, "Just aggressive in the strike zone. There were a lot of really bad swings. The slider was good today, some good sliders 95-97 (mph) with sink, aggressive in the strike zone, worked ahead in the count. His pitches were down in the strike zone, too. It was really good."

Note: Knuckleballer Mickey Jannis cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk.