Orioles lose again; fall to the Blue Jays on the road, 6-5

After traveling to Minnesota for a quick game against the Twins, the Birds sent Kevin Gausman to the mound for the first game of a three-game weekend set against their neighbors to the north.

How'd the battle for the top of the AL East go down? Everything you need to know and more below.

The Recap

Before Kevin Gausman even had to toe the rubber, the Orioles offense helped him out with first-inning fireworks. A Hyun-Soo Kim bunt single (against the shift) was followed by a Manny Machado walk, setting up the man, the myth, the legend Mark Trumbo to crack a two-run double to center. That put the Birds up 2-0.

Unfortunately, Kevin Gausman didn't seem to appreciate the gift from his offensive counterparts. Jose Bautista crushed a solo shot to left to lead off the bottom of the first, while Edwin Encarnacion launched another just a batter later. Just like that, Gausman gave us a brand new ballgame.

And the Blue Jays... well, they wouldn't stop. After Gausman picked up his second out, Troy Tulowitzski stepped up to the plate and put yet another Toronto run up on the board.

That's right - one inning, three dingers. He'd eventually work out of the disaster, but you can't take runs off the board. Into the second, it was 3-2 Jays.

But in the third, a Toronto miscue knotted things back up. Manny Machado ran to an unoccupied third base on a Chris Davis ground out, which turned out to be a classic Buck Showalter "hustle" move. A wild throw got away, scoring #13 and tying the ballgame at three.

In the bottom of the inning, the Kevin Gausman shelling continued, this time with self-inflicted wounds. A leadoff walk to Encarnacion started the second three-run frame for the Jays, an inning that included three singles and a throwing error from Matt Wieters.

Gausman continued to miss spots and completely manage to miss the zone, hitting the 79-pitch mark through just three innings pitched. Not exactly ideal.

A Pedro Alvarez RBI double helped chip away at Toronto's lead in the fourth. That was followed by Vance Worley's entrance (hurray, long relievers), which turned into a masterful four innings of scoreless work.

The Birds couldn't do much against Toronto starter Marco Estrada, who settled down nicely, but Worley mowed down Toronto hitters at a rapid pace. He allowed just one hit in his four innings, a complete 180 from Gausman's outing.

Quietly, Worley's ERA is down to just 2.89 on the season.

In the top of the eighth, Manny Machado blasted a Jason Grilli pitch over the fence, his 22nd home run of the year, to cut the Blue Jays lead to one. But as was the trend of the night, the O's couldn't string together consistency at the dish.

Six total hits isn't exactly a recipe for success.

Brad Brach threw a scoreless eighth inning, but the offense didn’t deliver in the clutch with their final opportunity. Jonathan Schoop popped out on the first pitch of the ninth, Alvarez went down swinging and after a J.J. Hardy line drive double, Adam Jones grounded out softly to third.

With the loss, the Orioles fall to 58-44 on the season.