O's talk about the frustration of series-opening loss at Toronto

TORONTO - The Orioles got the start they wanted tonight at Rogers Centre. A struggling offense produced a 2-0 lead when Mark Trumbo plated two with a clutch double with two outs in the first inning.

But five batters into the last of the first, O's right-hander Kevin Gausman had allowed three solo homers and the Orioles trailed 3-2. They would never lead again in losing 6-5 in the series opener at a loud Rogers Centre.

In losing their fourth straight, the 58-44 Orioles saw their American League East over Toronto shrink to a half-game.

Gausman matched his season high for homers allowed in that first inning. On the night, he gave up six hits and six runs over three innings and 79 pitches. Just when it looked like he was trending up - his ERA was 2.51 over his past five starts - Gausman got lit up by the Blue Jays.

"We get two runs in the top of the first against (Marco) Estrada, and in this ballpark he's a very good pitcher especially," Gausman said. "So for us to get two and for me to give three right back is just kind of deflating. Even when we got one in the top of the third, I came back out and gave up another three. It's obviously very frustrating. Frustrating and just kind of (ticked) at myself. This is obviously a big series for us right now, so for me to go out there and not even be competitive was bad."

The Blue Jays produced their 15th multi-homer inning of the year and second with three homers. Jose Bautista hit a leadoff homer (No. 13) and Toronto later got solo shots from Edwin Encarnacion (No. 28) and Troy Tulowitzki (No. 17).

"Just trying to get a feel for my curveball early in the game," Gausman said. "The one to Tulo was pretty good, the one to Bautista was up in the zone. Really, I was all over the place. Fastball command was terrible. I threw some good splits and that was really the only reason I got through three innings. I don't know what it was, but I guess you just go back to the drawing board and try to forget this and go on to the next one.

"You saw it in the first inning, they have a lot of power and have guys who are known throughout the league for hitting home runs. So if you don't have your A game, they are going to let you know. From pitch one to pitch 80 after the third inning, which is ridiculous, I was just all over the place. I had no feel for anything. I felt bad for (Matt) Wieters, I was kind of beating him up back there."

Gausman is now 2-8 with an ERA of 4.18. He matched his season high in runs allowed and is 0-7 with an ERA of 5.62 in 11 road starts.

Now his task is to regroup from this one.

"You just got to forget about it," he said. "There's things you can take from it, but I look at it as a night I was out of whack for some reason, I don't know ... it's just about getting ready for the next one. It's still July, we still have a lot of baseball to go."

Here's manager Buck Showalter's take on Gausman and the loss: "Just elevated a lot of pitches and made a lot of mistakes with his breaking ball. Made some good pitches, but not enough of them against a good hitting team. You know, (Vance) Worley did a great job and I got Brad (Brach) back out there. Our guys grinded (against) one of the better pitchers in the league and got him out of there and gave us a chance. I was real proud the way the guys got back in it in a tough environment."

When Gausman fanned Bautista and Josh Donaldson in a scoreless second inning, it looked like he was getting settled in. But then he gave up three runs in the last of the third after the Orioles had tied the game at 3-3.

"No, he never really got into step completely, but Vance did," Showalter said. "Gave us a chance to get back in the ballgame. Got the tying run to the plate there with good people. J.J. (Hardy) continued to swing the bat well. We did some good things, but we dug ourself a little hole and didn't quite get out of it."

Wieters said Gausman needs to produce a learning experience from this loss tonight.

"That's what you have to take it as," Wieters said. "If you don't learn anything in a loss, there's really no good in a loss. So, hopefully, we can learn something from this and move forward. I know he will and I know we will."

For the 18th straight game, the Orioles scored five or fewer runs tonight. They were held to seven hits and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. They've scored 11 runs during a four-game losing streak.

"We're not worried about the bats," Wieters said. "We had an opportunity there at the end. The bats will be fine. We'll be swinging. It's just something that comes at some point in the year. Just keep swinging and we'll be alright."

During tonight's game Wieters was probably as angry as we've seen him - and he was still a bit steamed after the game. He didn't see eye-to-eye with the strike zone of plate umpire Manny Gonzalez. In the eighth inning, Gonzalez called a strike on Wieters on a pitch that nearly bounced. Wieters struck out on the next pitch.

"You know, all night, I thought they were getting the low pitch more than we were," Wieters said. "I thought they got a little bit bigger zone, but the biggest thing that frustrated me was when the umpire is telling me to get back in the box. I feel like you have time and an umpire is more worried about pace of game and the players are more worried about trying to win a game. I'm trying to try to calm down and I needed to step out of the box because I thought the ball was low and he's trying to rush me back in the box and I just didn't appreciate that."

Showalter said: "There were a lot of strikes that weren't strikes. We all know that; you all are watching the same game. Players have tough nights. Obviously he had a bad one. We had a pretty definitive good angle on the fair-foul ball (hit by Hyun Soo Kim), too. I was surprised they didn't overturn that. Not real sure what they are looking at. We've had about four or five of those recently."

So a night of frustration ends with a loss for the Orioles. They have lost four in a row in this ballpark and are 4-10 here since the start of last season. They play here Saturday at 1:07 p.m., needing a win or they will be passed by Toronto and fall into second place.