The Orioles forced Dylan Cease to throw 33 pitches today in the first inning. They loaded the bases with no outs on two walks and a single. Coby Mayo got ahead 3-0 in the count.

Cease escaped by striking out Mayo, Samuel Basallo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. The Orioles made him work but didn’t make him pay.

The appearance of a bad omen wasn’t an illusion. The Orioles tied the game in the top of the fifth, but George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Kazuma Okamoto hit consecutive two-out home runs in the bottom half in the Blue Jays’ 8-1 victory at Rogers Centre.

Guerrero had his ninth homer and his first at Rogers Centre, which earned him a curtain call. The Orioles are closer to bowing out of the Wild Card race.

Yaramil Hiraldo, recalled earlier today, was charged with four runs in the eighth. Cam Sanders let three inherited runners score on Springer’s bases-clearing double on a ball that skipped past Dylan Beavers in left field.

The loss was the ninth in the last 12 games and lowered the Orioles’ record to 72-78. They went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13.

Meanwhile, the Guardians are leading the Twins 6-2 in the ninth and can move four games ahead of the Orioles for the last Wild Card. They hold the tie-breaker, which actually would make the margin five.

Trevor Rogers hadn’t permitted a walk or homer in his last two starts and was trying to become the eighth starter in franchise history to accomplish the feat in three straight. He would have been the first since Dave Schmidt from July 10-19, 1987.

Okamoto walked in the third, and the Jays erupted in the fifth. Rogers was charged with four runs and seven hits in six innings.

Cease struck out two more in a 10-pitch second inning. The Orioles stranded two in the third to run Basallo’s game total to five. But Beavers led off the fifth with a double and scored the tying run on Pete Alonso’s second hit of the day, a bloop single down the right field line that he couldn’t find after it left his hat.

Alonso has his fifth 35-homer, 100-RBI season. He could hit his 300th career homer this week at Citi Field.

Gunnar Henderson drew his third walk in the fifth, but the Orioles left two more on base. Basallo grounded into a force and Encarnacion-Strand’s liner ripped the glove off Cease’s hand but resulted in an out.

Cease was done after the fifth and Toronto had to go to its bullpen much sooner than desired after using an opener and six relievers yesterday.

Michael Lorenzen put the first two Orioles on base in the ninth, but a strikeout and double play ended it. Mayo’s strikeout was the team’s 15th. Yohel Pozo, perhaps gassed from appearing in back-to-back games, grounded into a double play.