masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe Orioles no longer are unbeaten at home or on a nice early roll.
Though they got six innings out of starter Mike Wright and the first home run from Matt Wieters, the Orioles lost again tonight, 4-3 to the Blue Jays before an announced crowd of 16,783 at Camden Yards.
The Orioles have dropped four of their last five games, tonight’s defeat coming after they stranded two runners in the eighth and went down quietly in the ninth. They had a 10-game home winning streak that dated to the second…

The Orioles no longer are unbeaten at home or on a nice early roll.

Though they got six innings out of starter Mike Wright and the first home run from Matt Wieters, the Orioles lost again tonight, 4-3 to the Blue Jays before an announced crowd of 16,783 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles have dropped four of their last five games, tonight’s defeat coming after they stranded two runners in the eighth and went down quietly in the ninth. They had a 10-game home winning streak that dated to the second game of a doubleheader on Sept. 30, 2015 versus Toronto, tied for the seventh-longest in club history.

Center fielder Adam Jones left tonight’s game after the bottom of the sixth with a stomach virus.

“He was battling it a little bit right after batting practice,” said manager Buck Showalter. “After he threw up, he seemed to be feeling a lot better and had cleared up and then got a little worse after, he ran the bases a lot and had to get him out of there. They took him over to check him a little further and make sure it’s not something else. We’ll see.”

wieters-finished-swing-white-sidebar.jpgWieters’ first homer was a two-run shot in the seventh inning after Mark Trumbo reached on an infield hit. No other runs scored and the Orioles fell to 8-4.

“Matty got us back in it there,” Showalter said. “That was a big blow. And he had a single in the middle of a potential rally there (in the fourth).

“We had a couple opportunities. (Marcus) Stroman’s really good. We knew it was going to be a challenge, but Mike gave us a chance to win. Mike gave us a chance. And it didn’t look real promising early, but I liked the way he hung in there. Gave us six innings. We’ll take that.”

Wieters has eight RBIs in nine games.

“Last year, when he came back, he had so much time away from major league pitching,” Showalter said. “Matty’s had some good at-bats. Just a reminder of what an offensive threat he can be behind the plate. He had a big hit in Boston. He’s been real close. I think he’s been real close to being the guy we know he can be and that he has been. It’s good to see.

“I don’t think he’s worried about the elbow. He understands what he’s dealing with there and feels confident about that. I think that’s taken a little stress off the offensive part of it. He and Caleb (Joseph) are a good tandem.”

Wright gave up a run in the second and two more in the third, but he retired eight of the last 10 batters he faced to complete six innings at 105 pitches.

“I thought Matt and he, I know it sounds pretty simple, mixed a lot of pitches,” Showalter said. “Didn’t get into harder, harder, harder, harder and try to sink more and more and more. I threw a lot of two-seamers, a lot of breaking balls behind in the count and kind of kept them away from a pattern. Didn’t go into that just heaving mode and more was better, and I think that allowed him from getting too patterned.”

It’s a sign of pitching maturity that Wright didn’t resort to bringing heat with every offering.

“That’s the same reason you like him,” Showalter said. “Mike’s firing. He’s all pistons and let’s go, but I think he’s learned that sometimes more’s not always better. He still reached back and got a little fastball when he needed it. But it was part of the repertoire instead of something he was doing every time. He two-seamed the ball and four-seamed the ball and spun the ball some.”

Wright came back out for the sixth at 89 pitches and retired the side in order.

“That was, I wouldn’t say a tough call,” Showalter said. “We’re trying to win baseball games and we’re trying to develop pitchers, so it was a little bit of both. I was going to go hitter to hitter with him there. I’m not looking at for it from appreciation, I’m looking for it trying to make the Baltimore Orioles better and Mike’s got a chance to contribute for us as a starter and I wanted him to kind of cross over that threshold. And hopefully that helps him mentally and emotionally as we go forward.

“I thought it was important. I think he threw 97 pitches last time out, so he was fine to handle the load. But I liked the return we got for that opportunity we presented for him.”

The Blue Jays scored once off Tyler Wilson, Wright’s replacement, in the top of the seventh inning. Wilson hadn’t allowed a run in six innings over two appearances.

“The tack-on run usually bites you against a good team like that,” Showalter said.

Wilson came back to toss a scoreless eighth and Mychal Givens stranded a runner in the ninth. Jose Bautista lined to left field to end the inning after twice stepping out as Givens was about to deliver a pitch.

“Mike held the ball on him a little bit and he’s got that right and the hitter’s got that right to step out if it’s too long. And we got an out and stayed within one,” Showalter said.

“Pitcher delivers the ball when he wants to and the hitter, if it gets too long he can step out. Both parties are covered. I didn’t think it was gamesmanship. I thought it was just a guy trying to get a hit and a guy trying to get him out.”

Brian Matusz was stretched to four innings tonight at Single-A Frederick and didn’t allow a run. He permitted one hit and struck out nine batters.

Matusz-throwing-white.jpg“That’s what we were looking for,” Showalter said, “so he’ll get a couple days off and see where we are.”

It doesn’t appear that the Orioles view Matusz as a multi-inning reliever despite the workload on his minor league rehab assignment. At least not on a regular basis.

“Probably not,” Showalter said. “Would we like for him to be able to? Could he? Yes. But that’s just kind of what we’ve had success with, doing this with him in the past.

“He’s had two or three multiple inning outings. We want to keep the ball in his hand because when he gets here that’s what’s going to happen. It’s nice to know he has the potential to get Carolina League hitters out over four innings. But that’s something he should do. A lot of guys go down there and don’t do it. It’s what we’d like to see Gaus (Kevin Gausman) do tomorrow in a hitter-friendly ballpark in Charlotte.”

The return of Gausman and Matusz figures to cost the Orioles at least one long guy out of the bullpen, which Showalter doesn’t think presents a problem “if we get six or seven innings out of our starters.”

“Between (Vance) Worley and Tyler, and I wouldn’t forget about (T.J.) McFarland’s ability to go long, too,” Showalter said. “We certainly won’t go forward without someone capable of throwing multiple innings.”