Wrapping up 4-0 loss by Orioles

TORONTO - Looking to get back over the .500 mark for the first time since they were 31-30, the Orioles were denied tonight. Mostly by the right arm of a pitcher looking to bounce back from his worst start of the season.

Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman blanked them over 7 2/3 innings, as Toronto beat the Orioles 4-0 at Rogers Centre. The O's failed to produce their first four-game road win streak of the year and are 38-39.

Stroman gave up seven runs in four innings his last time out against Texas as his ERA jumped from 3.15 to 3.69. He got it back down tonight, allowing just five singles, with no O's batter reaching second against him. He fanned eight and threw a career-high 119 pitches. That is the most by a Toronto pitcher since David Price threw that many on Aug. 3, 2015.

"He was commanding his fastball," Manny Machado said. "He pitched well today. Sometimes you win some and you lose some. You've just tip your cap and move on. We all make adjustments. The adjustments, that's just part of the game. But it's not like we weren't trying to do stuff."

Orioles manager Buck Showalter added: "He was working the bottom of the zone with two or three pitches. There really wasn't one you could box out and I think both pitchers were making use of hunting strikes. I'll leave it at that. He was really the difference. It kind of took away from Wade (Miley) should have given up two runs. The four walks are still troublesome, but Ash (Alec Asher) did a good job for us again to keep our bullpen in good shape for tomorrow."

Miley gave up six hits and four runs (three earned) over five innings, becoming the 16th O's starter in the last 18 games to pitch fewer than six innings. But maybe it was a small step forward for him after allowing 19 earned runs over 15 2/3 innings in his previous four starts.

"Yeah, I mean obviously what did me in was falling behind guys right out of the gate," Miley said. "I think I was 8-for-24 (actually 12-of-24) first-pitch strikes. That's not going to cut it at this level. Gotta figure something out.

"Got to figure out how to get the fastball back over the plate. Didn't have it at all tonight. Just lost. Try to throw down the middle and I was struggling getting it over there. I was a little quick in my delivery at times."

Miley gave up solo homers to José Bautista in the first and Justin Smoak in the fourth. In that fourth inning, he loaded the bases with two outs and the Jays leading 2-0. Bautista hit a hot-smash grounder up the middle at 110 mph and shortstop Paul Janish made a diving stop. But his toss to second for an inning-ending forceout was late. Jonathan Schoop might have had time to throw to first for an out and did, but his rushed throw was low and bounced. Two runs scored on the play.

Here was Janish's take: "Obviously, the ball was smoked. My read on the play was as hard as the ball was hit, we had a force at second. You have to give credit to (Kevin) Pillar. Obviously, we're not holding him on there and he has the ability to get a significant lead. And he beat the ball to the bag. It was a bang-bang play, kind of a split-second decision. I guess, in retrospect, it would have been good to pump fake to second maybe and go to first. But that is happening so fast, it's a tough play. You have to give him a little bit of credit for beating that ball to the bag. Most guys are not going to do that."

And on a night that Stroman was on top of his game, a four-run lead looked big - and it was.

"He was pretty locked in," Janish said. "He was throwing harder, maybe than he has in the past, No. 1. And his ball was taking off. He was hitting his spot. He was getting ahead in the count."

The Orioles had just five singles for the game and advanced one runner all night to second base. Their hitters fanned 12 times and they were shut out for the fifth time as Toronto recorded its fifth shutout. The Orioles are 3-10 this year when held to five or fewer hits.

With a split of the first two games of the series at Rogers Centre, they need to win tomorrow and that will give them a winning road trip and back-to-back road series wins.

"Tomorrow is a new day and we're going to go out there and try to keep battling," Machado said. "That's the thing about this team. We don't stop fighting. We're going to keep fighting until the end, and it's just a bump in the road for us and I've got faith in everybody that we're going to click together and we're going to do something special."