masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe homestand isn’t off to a promising start.

The Orioles are losing, 3-0, to the Blue Jays in the fourth inning. Two of the runs off Zach Britton are unearned after third baseman Mark Reynolds committed his 11th error, but Britton has allowed four hits, issued an intentional walk and thrown a wild pitch.

Britton hadn’t allowed an earned run in two straight starts covering 16 innings before surrendering nine runs and 19 hits in his last two outings covering 11 1/3 innings. He’s having…The homestand isn’t off to a promising start.

The Orioles are losing, 3-0, to the Blue Jays in the fourth inning. Two of the runs off Zach Britton are unearned after third baseman Mark Reynolds committed his 11th error, but Britton has allowed four hits, issued an intentional walk and thrown a wild pitch.

Britton hadn’t allowed an earned run in two straight starts covering 16 innings before surrendering nine runs and 19 hits in his last two outings covering 11 1/3 innings. He’s having issues again tonight.

Jose Bautista is 0-for-1 with the intentional walk. Before tonight, the former Oriole was batting .351 against left-handers and .363 against right-handers. However, he had 16 homers and 31 RBIs against righties, and four homers and nine RBIs against southpaws.

Toronto began the night with a league-leading .299 average against left-handers.

Last year, Bautista tied Tony Batista (Toronto in 2000) and Frank Howard (Washington in1968) for the most home runs (nine) in a season against the Orioles. Bautista’s home run total was one more than the Orioles’ team total against the Jays in 2010 (eight).

Eight of the last 10 games for the Orioles have been decided by one or two runs, and they’ve gone 4-4 – 3-2 in one-run games and 1-2 in two-run games. The last three games have been decided by one run, and the Orioles have lost two of them.

The Orioles hit two solo home runs and won Wednesday’s game at Seattle, 2-1. According to Elias, the last time the Orioles won a game when all their scoring came on two solo homers was July 13, 2007, when Nick Markakis and Corey Patterson went deep off Mark Buehrle in a 2-0 win over the White Sox.

Down on the farm, first baseman Derrek Lee has singled twice as Double-A Bowie’s leadoff hitter and designated hitter.

Triple-A Norfolk’s Brad Bergesen has allowed one run and two hits in three innings against Rochester. He’s walked three batters, struck out three and thrown 52 pitches (29 for strikes).

Update: It’s gotten a lot worse for Britton. He served up a grand slam to catcher J.P. Arencibia with two outs – of course there were two outs – in the fifth inning. Toronto 7, Orioles 0.

Britton walked two batters and threw another wild pitch. Jeremy Accardo was warming in the bullpen.