Welington Castillo's homer lifts O's past Toronto (quotes added)

José Bautista hit a huge three-run homer in the top of the seventh that gave Toronto the lead tonight. Then Orioles catcher Welington Castillo hit one of his own that topped him in the home half.

After hitting two homers last night - including a walk-off shot in the 10th - Castillo's three-run homer tonight put the Orioles ahead as they beat the Blue Jays 7-5 in front of a sellout of 45,416 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles are 25-16 overall, 15-3 at home and 7-1 versus Toronto. They moved back into first in the American League East, 1/2 game ahead of the Yankees, who lost earlier.

Bautista's three-run shot off Mychal Givens put Toronto ahead 5-4 after the two runners that scored ahead of the homer reached on J.J. Hardy's error and a walk.

In the home half, the Orioles got one-out singles from Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo. Then Castillo drilled a Danny Barnes pitch into the left-field seats. His fourth homer, on an 0-2 fastball at 93 mph, made it a 7-5 O's lead. The Orioles blew a lead and then went back ahead, thanks to the hot-hitting Castillo, who has 10 hits in 18 at-bats in four games since returning from the disabled list.

Castillo hit one homer in his first 80 at-bats as an Oriole and then hit three in his next eight at-bats.

Earlier, Kevin Gausman had an encouraging outing, his second quality start in three games, sandwiched around an early exit in Kansas City. He didn't have a 1-2-3 inning and allowed hits every inning, but left after six innings leading 4-2.

Over the six frames, he gave up 10 hits to set a season high and tie his career high. He walked one and fanned five and averaged 95.8 mph on his four-seam fastball, touching 99 mph.

After the O's got the lead tonight for the second time, they held on as Darren O'Day pitched a scoreless eighth and Brad Brach a 1-2-3 ninth for his ninth save.

The teams exchanged first-inning runs, with Toronto loading the bases with no outs and getting just one when Kendrys Morales hit into a double play. Trumbo's RBI single in the home first tied it up.

The Orioles then went to the longball off right-hander Mike Bolsinger. Manny Machado hit a solo shot, No. 10 for him, in the third. Trumbo's two-run homer to left in the fifth made it a 4-1 lead. He hit No. 6 off a 2-1 slider. Trumbo is 6-for-9 in this series. Justin Smoak's homer in the sixth made it 4-2 before the longballs by Bautista and Castillo an inning later.

After hitting two or more homers in a game eight times in the season's first 28 games, the Orioles have had multi-homer games 10 times in the past 13 games. They've hit 26 homers in that span.

Tonight was the 11th straight game the Orioles have played decided by one or two runs. They are 5-6 in those games.

They'll try for a three-game sweep here on Sunday when lefty Wade Miley (1-1, 3.02 ERA) pitches against right-hander Marco Estrada (2-2, 3.60 ERA).

Some postgame quotes:

Castillo on the at-bat in which he homered: "I just was trying to look for something out over the middle that I could drive. Don't try to do too much. His fastball can get on you and has some good life. Just told myself to stay on top of the ball and I never came off my plan. He gave me a fastball and I was able to hit it."

Castillo on hitting three big homers in two games: "Honestly, it means a lot. I love that situation. I want to be in that situation. That is type of player that I am. I don't care if I fell down (didn't come through). I wanna be the guy."

Castillo on losing a lead, but then getting it back: "This is a team, honestly, that we never felt when we're losing the game, we're going to give up. This is a team that can turn a [game] around really quick. Anybody on the team can do little stuff that can put us back in the game. This is a team that never gives up. That's the way I feel in here."

Gausman on his outing: "Obviously, I gave up a lot of hits, but I base my outing on how hard the balls were hit off me. I felt like they didn't hit the ball too hard and my defense came up huge. The biggest thing was throwing strikes consistently and putting the pressure on them."

Gausman, with two quality starts in three games, are you turning a corner?: "Yeah, definitely. I felt really good for the first three innings in Kansas City too. But mechanically, I feel great and this is probably the best I've felt to start off a season, health-wise. That is one thing to take positive from all this. Just have to be more consistent."

Gausman on Castillo: "He is a guy that is pretty easy to root for. He's always smiling and has a great mentality about him. So, when he's doing really well, we're very exciting. He's tearing the cover off the ball right now."

Brach on his wild last few weeks of ups and downs: "That is just baseball. It's a marathon, and I was in my head there for a little bit. I was able to forget about what happened before and roll with what is going on now. Thankfully, it's 162 games. For about two weeks there, it wasn't the best. But this is why you play the game, to pitch like this and be able to secure the win."