masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe Orioles got a quality start for just the second time this season. But it did not lead to a win. Toronto’s Marcus Stroman allowed three runs over seven innings as the Blue Jays beat the Orioles 4-3 in the opener of a three-game series at Camden Yards.
The Orioles have lost four of the last five games after a 7-0 start to fall to 8-4. Toronto has won three in a row and is 8-7.
Orioles center fielder Adam Jones left tonight’s game before the top of the seventh due to a stomach virus. Jones,…

The Orioles got a quality start for just the second time this season. But it did not lead to a win. Toronto’s Marcus Stroman allowed three runs over seven innings as the Blue Jays beat the Orioles 4-3 in the opener of a three-game series at Camden Yards.

The Orioles have lost four of the last five games after a 7-0 start to fall to 8-4. Toronto has won three in a row and is 8-7.

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones left tonight’s game before the top of the seventh due to a stomach virus. Jones, who did not start for six consecutive games from April 7-13 with rib soreness, went 1-for-3.

The Blue Jays loaded the bases against Baltimore starter Mike Wright in the second, but he minimized the damage and they took a 1-0 lead on Ryan Goins’ groundout. Toronto made it 3-0 an inning later. Michael Saunders led off with a double and went to third on Jose Bautista’s one-out single. Troy Tulowitzki’s two-out two-run double to left made it 3-0. Left fielder Joey Rickard dove, but the ball was just out his reach.

Stroman, meanwhile, retired the Orioles on 41 pitches with three scoreless innings to start his night. Then he pitched out of bases-loaded jam in the fourth. But the second batter of that inning, Manny Machado, crushed an 0-1 pitch to left-center for his fifth homer and the O’s trailed 3-1. He hit a low 92 mph cutter for the Orioles ninth homer over the last three games. The Orioles then loaded the bases on two singles around a walk, but Stroman got J.J. Hardy to pop out on a 2-1 pitch and end that threat.

Machado went 2-for-4 and has hit safely in each of the Orioles’ 12 games. He is batting .392.

Wright-Delivers-White-Sidebar.jpgOn the mound, Wright went six innings and 105 pitches in his second start. It was the O’s fourth outing of six or more innings and second quality start of 2016. He allowed six hits and three runs with three walks and four strikeouts. Stroman got the win and is 3-0 with an ERA of 4.13 over four starts.

Tyler Wilson replaced Wright in the seventh, but gave up a two-out RBI double to Bautista that made it 4-1 Toronto. The O’s cut that to one run when Matt Wieters hit a two-run homer to right in the last of the seventh. He hit No. 1 on a 1-1 pitch for a 4-3 game.

The Orioles hit two homers tonight, have 25 for the year and 10 over their last three games. But Toronto, which went 11-8 versus the Orioles last year, takes the opener of the season series tonight at Camden Yards.

In the second game of this series on Wednesday night, Ubaldo Jimenez (1-1, 3.75 ERA) faces right-hander R.A. Dickey (1-2, 6.75 ERA).