O's game blog: Evan Phillips gets the start against Toronto

The first 13 times this year the Orioles played Toronto, they went 1-12 and scored 35 runs. The last three times the clubs played - Aug. 27-29 at Camden Yards - the Orioles swept the series and scored 29 runs.

See how much more you can win when scoring runs in bunches?

From Aug. 20-22, the Orioles scored five runs in a three-game series at Rogers Centre and got swept three straight. That left them 0-10 this year in Toronto and 1-12 for the season. Then they swept the Blue Jays at Oriole Park by scores of 7-0, 12-5 and 10-5. In that series, they scored 29 runs on 41 hits, hitting six doubles and five homers. They went a remarkable 18-for-38 (.474) with runners in scoring position.

Several Orioles saw career firsts in Sunday's 8-4 win over the White Sox. Right-hander Ryan Meisinger tossed 2/3 scoreless innings and earned his first career win. Lefty Paul Fry threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts to notch his first career save. Center fielder Cedric Mullins went 4-for-5 at the plate with a double and one RBI for his first career four-hit game. Designated hitter DJ Stewart recorded his first career RBI with a fielder's choice in the first inning, scoring Jonathan Villar.

With his first appearance on Wednesday night, Stewart became the 14th Oriole to make his major league debut this season. The 14 debuts matched the most in a season in Orioles history. According to STATS, LLC., the mark for most Orioles to debut in a season was set in 1955 (the club's second year in Baltimore) with 14.

Toronto is 67-82 and in fourth in the American League East. The Blue Jays just won a series from the Yankees, taking the last two games of the series. Before that, they lost eight of 11. Toronto is 30-45 on the road. The Blue Jays are 25-41 versus the AL East, while the Orioles are 20-47 in division games.

Kendrys Morales has gone 16-for-47 (.340) with five homers and eight RBIs in 13 games against the O's this year, including seven multi-hit efforts. He has batted .316 (92-for-291) with 16 doubles, 15 home runs and 53 RBIs against them over 79 career games, his highest average versus an AL team.

Right-hander Evan Phillips makes a spot start for the Orioles tonight, who are likely to be using a patched-together bullpen game in the series opener. Acquired in a trade with Atlanta on July 31, Phillips went 0-0 with an ERA of 21.60 in four games with the Orioles after the deal. In eight games this season with Triple-A Norfolk, he was 0-2 with a 3.38 ERA. His first and only start in the pro ranks was on July 7, 2017 for Triple-A Gwinnett. Over 1 1/3 innings, he allowed five hits and three earned runs.

Left-hander Ryan Borucki (3-4, 4.26 ERA) is set to make his 15th start. He's thrown nine quality starts, including his last two games when he limited Tampa Bay and Boston to four runs over 12 1/3 innings. While he has an ERA of 2.65 at home, Borucki is 1-2 with a 5.82 ERA in eight road starts. He throws his four-seam fastball that averages 92 mph about 60 percent of the time and his changeup 24 percent.

In his only previous start against Baltimore, on Aug. 29 at Camden Yards, he gave up five earned runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. He has only yielded five homers on the season in 76 innings, but two came that night as Trey Mancini and Adam Jones connected.