Wojciechowski loses handle on Red Sox in 7-1 loss (updated)

The Orioles finally got away from a Blue Jays player who feasts on their pitching like he's breaking a fast.

Was it their turn tonight to pick on the opponent?

To do it with their starting pitcher?

Asher Wojciechowski made three starts against the Red Sox last season and allowed two runs in 17 2/3 innings. He registered a 5.98 ERA in his other 14 appearances.

A no-hitter was carried into the seventh inning on July 21 before Rafael Devers stroked a leadoff double. Wojciechowski reached his career high in strikeouts with eight in the top of the fourth. And tonight he faced a Red Sox team that no longer had Mookie Betts in its lineup and sat in last place in the division, 11 games below .500.

Devers singled tonight as the second batter of the night. No drama here. And Wojciechowski lost his touch at least temporarily, throwing 88 pitches in 3 2/3 innings in the Red Sox's 7-1 victory that extended the Orioles' losing streak to five games and lowered them below .500.

The Red Sox matched their run total from last season in the top of the second inning by scoring twice, Xander Bogaerts homered in the third and the Orioles slipped into fourth place in the American League East. Mitch Moreland punctuated the win with a three-run shot off Miguel Castro in the ninth.

Nathan Eovaldi was shutting out the Orioles until Pat Valaika's leadoff home run in the seventh inning.

Reminded earlier today of Wojciechowski's past dominance, with stats recited, manager Brandon Hyde said, "Please tell me you knocked on wood after you said that."

The Red Sox swung it a lot better tonight.

"For me, it's still a very, very small sample," Hyde said. "(Three) starts doesn't mean you own a club or that they have a hard time with him."

Getting teams to chase the slider usually results in a positive outing for Wojciechowski. He was pumping high fastballs in the first inning, when the Red Sox singled twice and didn't score because Anthony Santander made a leaping catch at the right field fence to rob Moreland.

Santander singled in the bottom of the first to extend his hitting streak to 15 games, poking the ball through the vacated shortstop area.

Wojciechowski left in the fourth with runners on the corners, two outs and the Red Sox ahead 3-0. Dillon Tate stranded them. Wojciechowski allowed seven hits, walked a batter and struck out four, and the Orioles are stuck on two quality starts from their rotation in 25 games.

Randal Grichuk hit four more home runs this week as the Jays swept a three-game series. The Orioles had lost four in a row to match their longest streak of the season and Hyde was critical of the lapses in fundamentals.

Are there dog days in August during a shortened season?

"Not for me," he said.

The Orioles are getting bit by their inability to bring runners home. They stranded 10 yesterday while going 2-for-11 with RISP and left the bases loaded tonight in the first when Valaika grounded out against Eovaldi, who threw 22 pitches - one fewer than Wojciechowski - during a 27-minute inning.

The Red Sox used a single and walk to start trouble in the second. Cedric Mullins called off Valaika and couldn't make a diving catch on Christian Vázquez's fly ball, his arm extension a bit too long.

José Peraza singled with one out to score Vazquez and Alex Verdugo's grounder to Hanser Alberto, who couldn't get the ball out of his glove to attempt a double play, gave Boston a 2-0 lead.

Hyde's pregame meeting won't solve every problem in one night.

Tate spared the bullpen more extensive use by logging 2 1/3 scoreless innings with one hit allowed and three strikeouts.

Tanner Scott replaced Travis Lakins Sr. with two runners in scoring position and one out in the eighth and stranded them. Scott issued a leadoff walk in the ninth, Devers singled for only the second hit Scott has allowed in 9 1/3 innings and Castro entered the game.

Bogaerts' RBI single produced the first earned run off Scott and Moreland cleared the center field fence. Scott was charged with two runs while sitting in the dugout.

Scott has stranded all 12 inherited runners this season. Teams are 0-for-13 against him with runners in scoring position.

Ramón Urías made his major league debut with two outs in the ninth, pinch-hitting for Valaika and struck out looking.

Hyde on Renato Núñez and others pressing: "I see a guy not getting into hitter's counts and when he's taking passes at the baseball, he doesn't have the same approach for me that he had earlier in the year when he's going well. When he's going well, he's free and easy at the plate, he's centering mistakes, and right now, it just looks like he's pressing offensively. It just looks like a guy that's pressing to me, like a lot of our hitters have been honestly for the last four or five. Ever since Iggy (José Iglesias) went down for me.

"Iggy and (Austin) Hays out of the lineup, I feel like a lot of these guys are just trying. Rio (Ruiz) is trying too hard, Noonie's trying too hard, Alberto's trying too hard. And we just put together better at-bats earlier in the year and we need to get these guys to relax and think about line drives in the middle of the field. Easier said than done, especially when you're facing the guys we just faced."

Wojciechowski on start: "I just thought I wasn't as sharp tonight. I wasn't executing my pitches and they fouled off a lot of pitches and just really made my pitch count get up. So it's just one of those nights when I wasn't as sharp. I thought the ball didn't really fall my way in the second inning, and before I knew it, I looked up in the second and I'm at 50-something pitches. Just one of those games that's pretty frustrating. Just wasn't able to execute and get quick outs."

Wojciechowski on the losses: "It's all about winning in this game, and no matter how you do it, you want to have a W at the end of the night. Losing's never fun and you've just got to keep on pushing and try to find the positives in what happened these last few games and move forward and just keep on trying to get better and things will turn around."

Núñez on what's different about team during losing streak: "I just think we haven't been able to drive those runs in and I don't know. I think we start putting at bats together, we're going to be able to bring in those runners and win ballgames."