Swept away in Toronto: O's lose big to end road trip (quotes added)

TORONTO - A series that began with the Orioles blowing a three-run ninth-inning lead Thursday night ended today with no late leads to worry about. The Orioles trailed 9-1 after the fourth and lost 13-3 to Toronto at Rogers Centre.

It was an awful ending to a four-game sweep by a Toronto team that began this series losers of seven of their last eight games and 10 of their last 11 home games. Today they completed their first four-game home sweep of the Orioles since June 26-28, 1978.

The Orioles fall to 19-45 and have been swept in a three- or four-game series for the seventh time. They've been swept by Houston, Boston, Detroit, the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland, Washington and Toronto. They are on a pace for just 48 wins for the season.

The road trip began with 2-1 and 1-0 victories at Citi Field, but ends with four losses at Rogers Centre. The Orioles are 1-6 on the season against the Blue Jays and fall to 9-27 on the road and 2-8-1 in road series.

The Orioles actually took a 1-0 lead today when Trey Mancini mashed a 414-foot homer to center off Marco Estrada in the second. Mancini hit No. 8 to end a 13-game homerless run. It was the Orioles' 15th straight solo homer since Pedro Álvarez hit a two-run shot May 19.

When Mancini dove for and missed Curtis Granderson's bloop two-run double to left in the home second, the O's fell behind and Granderson began a huge day. He went 4-for-5 with a three-run homer in the fourth as part of a career-high six-RBI day.

Toronto, now 30-35, added a run in the third, six in the fourth and four in the fifth to lead 13-1 as they roughed up both starter Alex Cobb and reliever Pedro Araujo.

Cobb allowed 11 hits to set a season high and gave up a career-high tying nine runs over 3 2/3 innings. He falls to 2-8 with an ERA of 7.23 and the Orioles are 2-9 in his 11 starts. He also allowed nine runs on June 3, 2017 for Tampa Bay at Seattle,

This loss ended a strong run of O's starting pitching. The rotation had an ERA of 2.27 with five quality starts over the last five games and 3.34 with nine quality starts in the past 10 games.

Araujo gave up homers in the fifth to Teoscar Hernández and Kevin Pillar. He allowed four runs and four hits over an inning. He's allowed 15 earned runs in 9 1/3 innings over his last nine games and his ERA is up to 7.71.

O's pitchers had given up just 15 runs in the first five games of this road trip, but the 13 allowed today were two shy of a season high. It was the ninth time the Orioles have allowed 10 or more runs in one game in 2018. They gave up 19 hits, one off a season worst.

One small bright spot today was the return of Darren O'Day. Activated yesterday off the disabled list, he pitched for the first time since May 4. He retired the side in order in the eighth on 17 pitches.

Jonathan Schoop snapped a 4-for-36 stretch with a solo homer to left in the seventh. It was his sixth and ended a 12-game homerless run for him and made the score 13-2. The O's made it 13-3 that inning on Jace Peterson's fielder's choice grounder.

But the Orioles scored just 11 runs in this series and 14 in six games on the trip. They went 1-for-27 with runners in scoring position the last four days at Rogers Centre.

But the trip ended at 2-4 with a blowout loss. Now the Orioles head home to face Boston on Monday night at Camden Yards having lost 11 of 13, 13 of 17 and 17 of their last 23 games.

Postgame quotes:

Cobb on his outing: "I felt actually really good to start this game. Was looking forward to a nice outing and it turned quickly. Probably fell victim of trying to do too much. Trying to make too good of pitches and coming out of my delivery on certain pitches and they really capitalized when I fell behind in the count. So, yeah, I got bled to death a little bit early on in that second inning, but I just kind of came unraveled in the fourth. I thought I was trending in the right direction for sure. But you know these games this year where I struggled, I've really struggled. I mean, they were just terrible outings and no good can really come from them. You're hurting the bullpen and not giving your team a chance to win. That's tough to swallow."

Cobb on how the clubhouse is holding up: "The guys, we're all doing well for how difficult it's been on you. I know you look at teams and how they react in tough situations and I don't know what's better, if everyone's just miserable because you're losing or people are able to come to work every day and be a good teammate and try to get out of that funk each and every day and help each other to get out of that. And I really think this team is doing that. It's impressive to see some of the guys who are struggling to really take time out of their day and their pregame routine to help other guys deal what they're dealing with."

Mancini said the clubhouse is trying to stay together during a terrible year: "That is very true. It's really hard. I don't really know how to describe it, like the twilight zone almost, the last couple of months. Just the way things have gone. A lot of us are struggling and you have a choice: You can either sulk in your sorrows and feel sorry for yourself or you can just wake up and choose to be positive and be a good teammate and help pick everybody up. I think everybody does a good job of that and tries to do that. We play this game for six months, so you don't want to spend it too miserable. You want to be as positive as you can and it's really hard to do sometimes."

Mancini on some tough chances in the outfield this series: "I just missed a couple of diving plays that just hit off the edge of my glove. I mean, you look back and there is nothing that I would have done differently. I thought I did the best and ran as hard as I could. I'm not blessed with blazing speed or anything. You try to do what you can out there and I can say I did that on those plays. Yeah, you just try to make every play and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't."

Manager Buck Showalter on getting swept: "That's why that first loss here was a little kick in the pants, because we had some things going that were positive for us. We are getting Zach (Britton) back tomorrow, we got Darren back on the field today. Like I've said all along, I think our pitching is going to settle out. We've just got to figure out a way to do something better offensively."

Showalter on Araujo: "It's been a challenge for him and that's to be expected. He's got good stuff. He's got a chance to be a good pitcher in the big leagues. We're talking to him now, making sure everything's OK, because you never want to assume something. You also want to keep in mind the psyche of a young pitcher like that without a whole lot of experience. Just make sure he and we are communicating with him and know what's going on."

Showalter on whether his team needs a kick in the pants right now: "That's assuming it hasn't already been done. Some of that stuff, it's got to be sincere and it certainly has been when it's needed, and there's a time when you don't beat on people when your down. That's kind of managing and coaching people, and it's not the time to be pointing fingers. It's pretty obvious where we're struggling."