Morton’s Oriole debut ends in 8-2 loss to Blue Jays; Holliday homers; Henderson plays for Norfolk

TORONTO- What happened? Charlie Morton allowed the first four batters of the fourth to reach base, and each scored on the way to a five-run inning and an 8-2 Orioles loss to the Toronto Blue Jays before 26,289 at Rogers Centre on Friday night.

Following their six home runs and 12 runs on Opening Day, the Orioles fell to 1-1 when they managed just three hits in six innings against former Oriole Kevin Gausman.

Jackson Holliday’s first home run gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Holliday has six major league home runs, four against Toronto.

Tyler O’Neill, who reached base five times in Thursday’s opener, drove in the Orioles’ second run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Adley Rutschman walked and moved to third on Ryan O’Hearn’s single before Rutschman scored on O’Neill’s fly.

Morton allowed four hits in the first three innings. None scored, but after the first four batters of the fourth reached, all scored. Josh Lukes walked with the bases loaded, and Alan Roden hit a sacrifice fly. Will Wagner scored on an Albert Suárez wild pitch, and Lukes scored on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s sacrifice fly. Former Oriole Anthony Santander’s single sent Bo Bichette to third, and he scored on Jorge Mateo’s wild throw to give Toronto a 5-2 lead.

Suárez allowed a run in the sixth when Lukes singled, went to second on an infield out, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Bichette’s single. Ernie Clement’s two-run double against Cionel Pérez in the seventh gave Toronto an 8-2 lead.

The Orioles’ offense shut down after the fourth inning. After Holliday’s single with one out in the fifth, the Blue Jays retired 11 straight batters until Rutschman’s leadoff walk in the ninth.

Nick Sandlin walked the bases full in the ninth, but struck out Ryan .Mountcastle to end the game.

What happened in Morton’s first start as an Oriole?  “He pitched out of some jams there in the first few innings,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Give them credit for how they swung the bat. I thought they took good at-bats against us, especially in the fourth inning there, and we just had a tough time putting out the fire there for him.”

The 41-year-old Morton, who became the oldest Oriole pitcher since 42-year-old Jesse Orosco in 1999, had a tough night.

“I just think having relied so heavily on my breaking ball for a very long time now, and then not really seeing it get outs on contact,” Morton said. “Just like weak contact. It was just a very strange night to see my four-seamer play the way it did and to see the curveball not play the way it did.”

Morton was disappointed in his performance.

“I got into the fourth inning and I come in and it’s like, ‘man, I’m kind of working behind some guys,’” he said. “I go 0-2 on the first three guys and they all get hits. And to top it off, I give up another hit on the breaking ball and shoot, it’s bases loaded, a high-pressure situation again in the fourth inning. It was just a very taxing outing.”

What was wrong with the Orioles’ offense? Holliday had two of the three Oriole hits. O’Hearn had the other. The Orioles didn’t get a hit against Toronto’s bullpen.

“I thought Gausman was really good,” Hyde said. “I thought he was tough on our lefties with the slider he was kind of jamming us with. We hit some balls hard early. A little bit unlucky offensively early, but he’s a good starting pitcher. We just had a tough time kind of getting things going against him.

“I thought we did a good job, especially early, we had a lot of 3-2 counts off Gausman. His stuff’s really good, battled well. But, yeah, he just pitched really well against us.”

Holliday had one hit in the big win on Thursday, and two in the lopsided loss.

“It’s obviously very tough to replicate what we did [Thursday] every night,” Holliday said. “But we’ve got tomorrow. Obviously, not the result we’re looking for as a team, but like I said, we’ve got tomorrow to get after it. Yeah, that’s what we’re searching for every night, what we did the first night, but it’s tough to do that.”

What did Holliday think about his opposite-field power? Holliday hit a 425-foot home run to the opposite field.

“That’s what I was looking for,” he said. “I was looking to hit a low line drive, kind of through that gap, because he’s got a good splitter. Put a good swing on it and that’s kind of what I was looking for. Obviously, not trying to hit a homer, but trying hit a low, hard line drive, and looking for a heater.”

He was pleased, but not surprised by his opposite-field power.

“I don’t know, I squared it up and I was like, ‘Hopefully that’s got a chance,’” Holliday said. “I think that’s the hardest spot to hit in pro ball. My buddy texted me and was like, ‘What was that?’ I’m like, ‘That’s a good question. I don’t really know.’ But hopefully if I can stick to that approach of hitting line drives to the gap like that, I’ll be in a good spot, so very happy with it.”

There wasn’t much for Hyde to like, but Holliday’s home run pleased him.

“I’m not expecting him to hit balls in the seats in the opposite-field gap, but that was really, really impressive,” he said. “Really talented guy. He’s super young [21]. He’s still learning the big leagues, and taking Kevin Gausman deep like that, it’s impressive.”

What does it mean? The Orioles aren’t going to hit six home runs and score 12 runs in every game, so they’ll need efficient pitching performances, similar to the one they got from Zach Eflin on Thursday. Morton allowed eight runners to reach in pitching to the Blue Jays’ batting order twice in 3 1/3 innings.

What’s the word? “I didn’t pitch well. I wish I had. But there’s nothing I can do about it now.”–Morton on his night.

What’s the stat of the day? 0. The Orioles didn’t have a hit in the final 4 2/3 innings.

What’s going on in the minor leagues? Gunnar Henderson went 1-for-3 and played seven innings at shortstop in his first rehab game as Triple-A Norfolk lost to Durham, 9-2, in the Tides’ season opener. Henderson popped to short, singled and grounded to first and made an error that led to two runs in the first.

Thaddeus Ward allowed three runs, two unearned on the Henderson error, in four innings. Corbin Martin gave up five runs on seven hits in two innings. Dylan Carlson homered and Vimael Machin had an RBI single.

What’s next? Dean Kremer will face Max Scherzer on Saturday at 3:07 p.m.

Call for questions: Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com