Tough day at the office: O's need to regroup as Toronto series resumes

As possible results go, this was not good. A split would have been OK, a sweep would have been preferable. But getting swept in a doubleheader to start a big four-game series was not what the Orioles had in mind at 1:05 p.m. Monday afternoon.

O's pitching allowed 15 runs in the two games against Toronto. And now, during a three-game losing streak, the O's have allowed 20 runs and seven home runs.

They have fallen to 71-64 and now are 4 1/2 games behind Toronto for the third and final American League playoff spot.

The Orioles have regrouping to do and quickly. The best they can do now is split this four-game series. But doing that and being 2 1/2 games back, where they started yesterday, sounds a lot better than 4 1/2 games out.

They still have eight of their final 27 games left coming against a Toronto team that they still have a winning record against at 6-5.

The Orioles actually took a 1-0 lead in each game of the doubleheader with an early homer. But they also trailed by the third inning each game as well and never caught up. 

The O's Anthony Santander hit a pair of solo homers in the opening game and has 27 homers on the year. That is seven more than his previous career high of 20. He homered from both sides of the plate in producing his seventh multi-homer game and second of this year. 

Santander also homered from both sides on May 16 versus the Yankees. He became the first Oriole with two or more multi-homer games from both sides of the plate in the same season since Roberto Alomar in 1996.

In the nightcap, Toronto's Bo Bichette hit three home runs. Toronto thus became the second team in AL history to have two players under 25 (Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.) with a three-homer game in the same season, joining the 1927 Yankees (Tony Lazzeri and Lou Gehrig), per Stats By STATS.

Bichette, who homered to left, center and right field, hit 1,212 feet worth of homers. He tied his career-high with five RBIs and recorded his eighth career multi-homer game. The last two have come versus the Orioles.

Toronto is now 11-1 in its last 12 road games. That is its best 12-game road stretch since another 11-1 run from May 4 to June 5, 2014.

The O's bullpen began the night with an ERA of 3.09 to rank third-best in the AL and fourth in the majors. But the 'pen pitchers gave up 15 hits and 10 runs, including five homers, over 10 2/3 innings.

Before the doubleheader, O's pitchers had allowed just eight runs the previous five games, 17 in nine games and 35 in the previous 14 games.

O's batters hit two homers in each game, all four were solo shots. Baltimore batters have hit nine home runs the last four games and 14 in the past seven contests.

O's hitters went just 1-for-14 in the twinbill batting with runners in scoring position. The O's are batting .119 with RISP (8-for-67) over the last 11 games.

Adley Rutschman's solo homer in the ninth inning of the second game was his 10th of the year. He went 5-for-9 on the day with two runs and two RBIs. He's now batting .257/.362/.451 in 87 games with an OPS of .813. His three hits in the nightcap tied his career high as he produced his 21st multi-hit game.