masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgTORONTO – The Orioles will try to do something tonight at Rogers Centre that they could not do at all last year – win. They went 0-10 and were outscored 63-28 last season in Toronto.
The Orioles had series where they went 0-4, 0-3 and 0-3 last year at Rogers Centre. They were out-homered in the 10 games, 35-20. Toronto batters hit .277/.339/.500 with an .839 OPS. Randal Grichuk hit .355 with five homers and 11 RBIs versus the Orioles, while Kevin Pillar hit .385 with four homers and 10 RBIs and…

TORONTO – The Orioles will try to do something tonight at Rogers Centre that they could not do at all last year – win. They went 0-10 and were outscored 63-28 last season in Toronto.

The Orioles had series where they went 0-4, 0-3 and 0-3 last year at Rogers Centre. They were out-homered in the 10 games, 35-20. Toronto batters hit .277/.339/.500 with an .839 OPS. Randal Grichuk hit .355 with five homers and 11 RBIs versus the Orioles, while Kevin Pillar hit .385 with four homers and 10 RBIs and Kendrys Morales (recently traded to Oakland) hit .291 with five homers and eight RBIs.

The Orioles hit .232/.296/.373 against Toronto in those games. The Orioles lost four of those games by one run and another by two runs.

But this time Baltimore takes some momentum into this series after winning the last two games of the series at Yankee Stadium by 5-3 and 7-5 scores.

Toronto lost 4-3 in 11 innings yesterday to the Tigers to split their four-game series. The Blue Jays lost their season opener at home to Detroit, and then they shut out the Tigers back-to-back on Friday and Saturday by scores of 6-0 and 3-0. It was the first time the Blue Jays threw back-to-back shutouts since Sept. 23-24, 2016.

Toronto’s starters pitched 19 scoreless innings over their first three games, and then righty Trent Thornton added five more Sunday. So Toronto starters have thrown 24 scoreless to begin the new season. That is the most to start a year since Atlanta pitchers threw 25 straight without allowing a run to begin the 1994 season. Toronto’s current run is the fifth-best all-time . The MLB record is 32 innings, held by the 1963 St. Louis Cardinals.

Toronto pitchers also set a franchise record with 50 strikeouts in those games. That is their most ever in one series, topping the 48 versus Houston from July 25-28, 2013.

Hess-Delivers-Gray-Sidebar.jpgRight-hander David Hess gets the start for the Orioles. He threw two scoreless innings in the opener in relief on Thursday at New York. Last season, the 25-year-old Hess went 3-10 with a 4.88 ERA in 21 games, 19 starts. Over 103 1/3 innings he allowed 106 hits and 22 homers. He recorded 37 walks, 74 strikeouts and a 1.384 WHIP.

Hess made 10 starts (11 appearances) against the American League East in 2018 and he went 3-4 with a 3.51 ERA and five quality starts. His 3.51 ERA was the sixth best against the division among pitchers who made at least 10 starts.

That included some very strong numbers against Toronto. He was 1-1 with an ERA of 0.95 in three starts. Over 19 innings he gave up 12 hits and two runs with four walks, 16 strikeouts and a WHIP of 0.842.

Right-hander Sean Reid-Foley will start for the Blue Jays. In seven starts last season he went 2-4 with a 5.13 ERA. Over 33 1/3 innings he gave up 31 hits including six homers with 21 walks, 42 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.560. He averaged 5.7 walks per nine innings and 11.3 strikeouts. He has never faced the Orioles.

A second-round draft pick of Toronto in 2014, Reid-Foley threw four-seam fastballs on 63 percent of his pitches last season. They averaged 94.2 mph. He threw sliders 24 percent of the time, with changeups at eight percent and curveballs six percent.

For the fourth time in the last five years, the Orioles have started a season winning at least two of their first three games. They went 2-1 in 2015, 3-0 in 2016 and 2017 and 1-2 last year.